Posts Tagged ‘friendship’

Tomorrow, I’m off to the next adventure. Though I will back in London town, a place that I know well, I will be starting graduate school at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world (LSE is ranked 4th in Social Sciences in the world this year by QS! Sorry, had to throw that in there!). I am excited and terrified all at the same time. Will I be ready for the rigor of academia? How will I compete against my fellow classmate who are on average 3-5 years older than me and thus have more experiences? I’ve gotten so good at killing time that the sheer idea of deadlines and responsibilities seem scary. My fellow PCVs who have already began their grad programs all seem to be adjusting well. One of them gave a great piece of advice tonight: just take it one day at a time.

It’s been a whirlwind of the past 7 weeks in the USA. Saw lots of great friends & spent quality time with the family. I am incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful support system. Family aside, I have collected incredible friendship from literally around the globe. The kind of friendship so solid that years can pass with minimal contact and the moment we meet, it’s as if time has not passed. It may be cliché, but I live to continue to create those relationships and to maintain them. At the end of the day, people is who you have. All material goods are, well, temporary, and more often than not, unnecessary. Cherish your loves.

I will miss mama’s meals and coffee dates with my friends. But new coffee dates can be created and thanks to technology no one is more than one phone call, or skype session away! Mama’s meals though, now that, will take some waiting. For me, home is where my loves are, and that, happens to be around the world.

Home Cooking

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Two days ago, I returned from a nearly a month-long voyage to Canada then a grand tour of the East Coast visiting friends in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington D.C. The wonderful thing about being a wanderlust is that you end up with great friends literally all over the world. There is something about being together in a foreign place, and having that exotic, foreign experience that really bonds people. I realized many of my good friends whom I was visiting were friendships that were born out of my previous time abroad.

The flip side of being a wanderlust is that you can never spend a lot of time with any one group of friends. I was slightly sadden by the fact that I will be jetting off to London in two weeks and likely won’t see these loves for another year or longer. Though I have to say it is quite incredible how easily conversations flow between me and people whom I haven’t seen in two years, and some with very minimal contact. I suppose that’s how you know that is a friendship here to stay.

I would say that I am 90% integrated back to life in the modern world. I even went on a bit of shopping binge in New York and Philadelphia. Some old habits die hard. I find myself having thoughts about the ironies of life in this modern world. In this world, I shower everyday, yet I don’t ever really get that dirty. I should’ve been showering/bathing everyday in my village, but lack of running water made it impossible. While using household appliances like the powerful washer and dryer or the vacuum cleaner, I think about how the floor and the clothes really aren’t that dirty and using those machinery seem like a waste. It would have made more sense to have those things in Cameroon, but lack of electricity, among other factors, made it pretty impossible. Sometimes, the thought that my “bathroom” over just a little over a month ago, was literally a hole in the ground, really blows my mind.

So even though 90% of me is well adjusted, there is that 10% that still have these thoughts and feel conflicted with my life then and my life now. A message from my replacement to tell me my neighbor boy misses me and that I should phone if I get the chance put tears in my eyes. That 10% of me is still so attached to that life back there, and in some ways, I hope this never goes away. It keeps me grounded, and gives me perspective.

While in New York City, I was standing in Times Square and had a very surreal moment. This was my life a month ago:

And this was my life at that moment in time:

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