I remember the night before I left. I was still packing, which isn’t unusual for a procrastinator like me. Packing for two years seems pretty unrealistic. It was like things kept popping into my head that I thought I had to have. I look back now and realize how different I would have done the whole packing thing. That last day was painful, saying goodbye to my family and best friends, thinking that for most of them it will be two years before I see them again. That last night I sat there just thinking I can’t believe it’s actually here. It was my parents, Kenny, and Steph who took me to the airport the next morning. We had Starbucks coffee and sat there making sure I didn’t forget anything and pretending like this wasn’t one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. We didn’t leave time for a big dramatic goodbye. When it was time everyone slipped on their sunglasses and we gave our hugs and I gave my words of love and they gave their words of encouragement. No turning back…
6 months….that was all 6 months ago. It feels like a lifetime ago. If I could sum up these past six months in one word it would be”rollercoaster”. Emotionally, mentally, physically this whole experience has been a rollercoaster ride. You are away from the people that mean most to you, slowly you feel disconnected from your life at home and all while you’re in a foreign country with complete strangers. Group 83 quickly built a relationship and it grows stronger every day, and now I couldn’t imagine this experience or my life without them. These people are my support system. There are just some things that we aren’t able to write home about and are lucky to have one another for that. Each one of us is so unique and different, all having different stories and different reasons for being here.
I look back over the past six months and remember my reasons for doing this. I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to not just travel but live in a different country. I wanted to do something completely on my own and climb the ladder of independence. Well check, check, and check.
So what new things have I learned or done in the past six months?
1. Made 20 amazing new relationships
2. How to kill a chicken and pluck it
3. Some of the Samoan language
4. How to ride a bus when its doubled its maximum capacity
5. I have mastered the art of eating with your hands
6. Eating a fish still accompanied by its scales, head, and bones
7. I am a certified scuba diver
8. I have learned that food can sit out way longer than 4 hours…J…I still haven’t gotten any stomach problems…knock on wood
9. Living on your own gives you way too much time to think and ponder your past and your future and that very moment
10. Everything tastes better with coconut cream
11. Other volunteers will refute this but palagi chicken is a million times better than Moa Samoa…
12. How to make coconut cream
13. Roosters do not just make noise when the sunrises. Actually I have yet to find a time when there not making noise
14. Punctuality is extremely overrated
15. Air conditioning is extremely underrated
16. How to successfully do laundry in a bucket
17. Reading has become a favorite hobby
18. Cold showers have become tolerable
19. Not lost my camera
20. This is new as of today…have my first infected wound! Don’t worry its no big deal…
Fun and silly as those things may seem above, there are a lot more, but those are the ones off the top of my head. This experience has made me confront different emotions and problems that I haven’t experienced. I do think I am a different person from the girl that left home on October 4. There is a lot more to learn, a lot more to do, a lot more to see, and a lot more to become. Looking forward to the next year and a half.
Peace and Love
