I know. Long time. You probably thought you were lucky enough to get rid of me. To you I say: tough luck.
I have no apology, and no excuse but that I haven't known how to express my thoughts with anything less than novella-length musings. Since leaving Reunion, I have spent 3 days in Paris, 1.5 weeks in Germany/Austria, 1 week in Springfield, 1 week in Texas, 4 days in Springfield, 3 days in Arkansas, and a final 4 days in Springfield. All but three of my Springfield days have been spent working at my new job in the Study Away Office in one of the university's downtown buildings. I love the job, and eagerly anticipate the paycheck that will hopefully take significant chunks out of the sum of my debt to my mom remaining from our Europe voyage. Looks like I planned money perfectly for this spring... except that when I was planning I didn't account for 3 weeks in Madagascar, 1 in Mauritius, 2 in the US, and 2 in Europe... why can't they make a frequent flyer plan that applies to ALL airlines simultaneously?
Anyway the adjustment back into American life has proven somewhat less than smooth. I feel that I have too much stuff and too much room to put it in, and I can't lay IN my bed, but rather ON it. I can't walk anywhere. What is this 100+ degree weather?! And what happened to the Laura that wasn't used to air conditioning? I miss living in a community, though there is a certain freedom in living in the luxury of home.
I have the travel bug, bad. I officially made a list of my options for Summer/Fall 2011 today, and some of the more desirable options would place me in Uganda, Iceland, or the UK.
I look forward to the start of the new semester with its promises of routine and intellectual challenge. 12 hours of Religion classes and 3 history? Oh yeah.
It is wonderful to reconnect with my friends, but I feel this exaggeration. It's like all my close friends from before are all the more dear to me now, and my I-like-you-but-we-haven't-really-hung-out-but-maybe-some-other-time? friends are all the more distant, like I have even less in common with them now than I did before. I'm trying to keep an open mind and not become to proud or anti-social, but even with the close friends, things have certainly changed.
Another major thing has changed. I am reading RELEVANT magazine (okay, that's not too new) and catching up on the issues I missed this spring. And crazily enough, it's been GENUINELY inspiring me. Not like the "Oh how interesting, I'll copy that into my journal!" type inspiring... no. I mean, like, "Wow. I'm going to do this with my life." I know it's not just the articles, but it's like I've been experiencing in the last two weeks a constant building of energy focused around a decision I feel I'm being called to make. I've decided that the world CAN CHANGE. And I can make it happen. Sounds cheesy, but I'm serious. I really think I can. I think people are good and often lost or deceived, but ultimately want to see the best work out for everyone.
I can feel it; everything is going to change, and I'm going to work toward that.
I believe that by educating people about the affects of their actions, the global community can make incredible strides toward economic and ecologic sustainability, protection of human rights, relief of grand-scale poverty, and a general mindset of compassion.
Basically, I'm going to save the world.
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