Australia was a place where I found peace. I found strong friendships. I found love of life, welcoming people, and adventure on a regular basis. I cannot accurately communicate how much my time there meant to me. As such, it should be no surprise that, while there are some good things happening currently, overall being back "home" has not been an easy transition. Yeah, it's been a few months now. In fact, it's been almost the full length of the semester already. But those few months I spent thousands of miles from my current location were formative and life-changing months.
I don't think a day passes that I don't tell someone a story about Oz. Certainly, I talk to someone from the trip every day--usually more than one person. Before the summer was over, I took two trips to visit friends from ASC. I traveled by plane to visit Toby in Connecticut, which was an absolutely fantastic few days. I got to meet several of her friends, her mom, and even got to go to Maine for my first time. The trip was well worth the effort to get up there and she and I have plans for other trips to see each other again within the next few months. Just before I left for that adventure, Rachel stopped by my house for basically 1 day. This was also a fantastic visit and I eagerly anticipate the next one. Then, on my way back from CT, I got to have dinner with Alessandra and her sisters in Charlotte. Such wonderful people. I'm so lucky.
A few weeks passed and I got the itch to travel again. Thus, looking at various options at to where I should go, I finally picked Michigan by way of Indiana. By going this route, I got to stop at my sister's new house in Kentucky, as well as get lunch with Amanda. Visiting with her was such a blessing. I can't wait for her wedding! Then, I continued up to Michigan where I stayed with Ryan for just a couple days. We went to the Henry Ford Museum, Ryan made me pancakes and steak (not at the same time), and we completed a very large and difficult puzzle. And... within a couple weeks of my visit, Ryan got engaged. I can't wait for his wedding too!
I drove home from Michigan through Ohio and Kentucky, enjoying a gorgeous day by myself in my car. I listened to music, had Lady Gaga dance parties with myself, and even called a few people while I drove. It was a wonderful end to the summer. And then, a couple days later, I moved back to Milligan.
Getting back into the normal flow of things has not been easy. I have a pretty full schedule, a good-sized class load (though it looks small on paper), I'm stage managing The Secret Garden, I'm finding a lot of my old friendships have faded quite a bit (interests change, people change, that's life...). And I'm starting to miss the people and things that made Australia so fantastic more and more each day. During Australia, I was pretty much stress free. Being back, it's like all of that stress I stayed away from last semester has come flooding back into my life. I'm trying to figure out what I do with all of the things I learned during my time abroad. I'm trying to figure out how to maintain the close relationships I made while I was gone. I'm trying to figure out how to fit back in with the people here. And to be perfectly honest, I'm having a hard time figuring any of it out.
Australia is seeming more and more like a dream every day. And I feel like I'm in that moment of waking where I'm saying, "Wait, wait, stop fading! Please let me sleep for five more minutes. Please let the dream pick back up where it left off... I don't want it to be over..."
