Culture Shock

December 12 was the day I left Tanzania.  I remember looking out the window of the airplane and feeling a strange combination of pride, sorrow, and inspiration as I watched the world beneath me become a part of my past.  Pride that I had embarked on the greatest adventure yet-- all on my own-- and come out alive.  Sorrow that I was leaving a place that I had grown to love and appreciate in its own special way.  Inspiration for the way I wanted to live the life that I had in front of me.

It has been quite a year filled with lots of joy, but some sadness too.  I have embarked on a similar adventure, but this one has no end date when I know I'm going home.  I'm trying to make this my home.  Although I am not speaking Swahili, Kentucky can be just as much of a foreign land as I navigate my way through being a single twenty-something girl and learning how to be a grown up woman.

I could not have predicted the way the past year has gone.  I hope I get to say the same thing come next year. I've done a lot of soul searching recently and the task before me is clear.  So I'm harnessing the person that left for Tanzania not knowing where she was going to sleep that night, but who had faith that everything would turn out alright.  I have no idea what's coming, but I know it's going to turn out alright.