Going Home

I am leaving Fiji for a one month vacation back home in the States on December 1 and I could not be more excited. I just left Fiji for the first time in two years less than two weeks ago, to travel to Sydney, Australia with a friend, and it was a great experience and a small taste of what I can expect from America. Good food, great friends, family, driving, and lots of fun.

Oddly enough, I did not get culture shock in Sydney like I thought I would. It was weird seeing so many things I had not seen in a long time, but I did not freak out like I thought I might. Though, I also never went into a store like Walmart while I was there.

Everyone has asked me what I plan to do when I go to America, and I have to share the fact that other than a few small tasks, I don't plan on doing anything. I just want to see all the people I love who I haven't seen in two years, or a little less for those who have visited me in Fiji. I want to sit around my grandparents's table telling stories and playing games. I want to play pool with my dad. I want to lounge around my mom's house listening to awful Christmas music and hanging out with my siblings.

One thing I have learned from being abroad for two years is that home is not about the location, the house, or the comfortable bed. Home is where loved one's reside. Adventure and travel is fun, but it could never be better than being home.

I never want to stop traveling. Before I traveled I thought I would love it and since I have done it I learned that I was right. It is the quickest, cheapest, and best way I know to learn about others and myself. I would love to visit every country on the planet and find out what I have misunderstood about the people of those countries, what I have forgotten or never knew about myself, and what they misunderstand about me and my country. But I hope to always have the good fortune of returning home after a short while to check in with everyone who is most important to me.

In three days I will be home. It does not matter what has changed there in the last two years, who controls congress, who hates who, or even who the president is, because I know the people I care about are still there. I am as excited to return home as I was to come to Fiji. And I know I will be able to say the same thing next time, no matter what country I am coming from.