2/18/10

Traveling Home




I wrote this yesterday to one of my close friends from Argentina who is on exchange here at the University of Utah:

For me, saying goodbye is the worst activity that has been invented in life. I am no good at it and I cry every time. But it is important that you start to mentally prepare yourself for your return home. Otherwise you might be very sad when you get home.

I generally experience a few days of depression when I get back home, but when I am gone for long periods (like Argentina) it lasted for a while.

Not that I am sad to be home or that I didn't miss my family and friends. But that quote that I have up about travel really is true for me:

"Certainly,travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” -Miriam Beard

When we travel we experience so much more than we consciously realize. And then when we return back to familiar surroundings with our family and friends, we begin to realize how very deeply we have changed.

And then you recognize . . . that there is no way, in any language, to adequately explain and illustrate the changes that have gone in your soul.

People will ask you: "So how was the USA?"

How can you possibly answer that? You can't. So don't try to.

I have told people over and over again, that for me, Argentina was a transformative experience. One that is changed my life forever.

Can I explain it adequately? Never. Only my heart can feel the totality of that change.

But, I love to share stories . . . of empanadas on a park bench in Parana . . . or the wonderful city of Cordoba . . . to wandering all over Santa Fe and BA with newly made friends for life . . . or even trying to convey the depth of despair and sorrow from the interviews that I did.

Little by little, as time goes on, you yourself will begin to understand how this experience has changed you.

The best part . . . is that you still have no idea how this trip has changed your life's path, for the better, in the future. So sit back and enjoy it Ces.

Soak it in. Because the next time you come back, you will be a different person and ready to experience different things . . .