In Summary

January 6, 2012 at 7:33 pm (The Category-less Category)

I’ve been in America for just a little over a month now, and it’s time for me to officially wrap up this blog. Eventually, I hope to take it off-line, but in the meantime I’m trying to figure out the most efficient way to put it in print. I imagine copying and pasting each of my 162 (with this one 163) posts and 172 comments will take me some time, but it’s a less daunting task than trying to figure out which of my 1,000′s of pictures I’d like to print off.

First world problems, eh?

Anyways, things have been, well, a little weird. Not bad really, just purgatorial. (I think I made that word up.) I knew that when I moved home I’d have 8 or so months of down time until school starts. I knew I would have trouble finding a job. I knew that the number of friends my age living in Nashville had dwindled to a one-handed count. I knew that it has been 6 years since I’ve spent so much time consecutively in the place I call home. Bascially, I knew it would be weird, so I was mentally prepared in a way.

Despite the weirdness, the past month has been wonderful. Like the two dogs in our house, I find myself gravitating to the rooms occupied by other humans. If I spend more than an hour alone in my room when someone else is home, I begin to feel almost guilty, a little impatient. I love waking up in the morning when someone else is awake. (I should mention, I have three sisters and my mom and dad at home, so the chances of that happening over my sisters’ Christmas breaks were very high.) I love being able to go to the gym and kill time in an active way. I love how easy it is to make breakfast and lunch. I love that I have so much I’d rather be doing that I’m rarely on the internet. I love that I came home at Christmas time, when everyone was feeling the Spirit of Giving and willing to give me the things I needed for my readjustment back to America! (Selfish much?)

My first few days back home, everyone was still at school and work, so I had the house to myself. Our 4 bedroom house, that somehow feels too small when all six of us are home, felt like a true mansion my first week in it. Everything is so beautiful and clean and tasteful. You go from one room to another room to another room for all different sorts of things. Make your food in the kitchen. Eat your food at the table that’s not in the middle of the kitchen. Put your dishes in a dishwasher and leave them! Watch TV in the living room. Get on the computer in the office. Sleep in your bedroom. Do laundry in a laundry room and leave it! The past two years I’ve been doing all that and more in such a small space, that it was just awesome to find something so mundane be so, um, fun.

I was super excited about food options when I first got back, and I forgot that I should have taken it slow with the meat. In Ukraine, I was eating maybe one chicken breast a month, and when I did eat it, I split it in half or thirds to stretch it a few meals. Here, I had meat at least twice a day for a few weeks. I’ve decided to cut back for a while. I think that was a little overkill. I was having constant headaches for my first few weeks back home, and while there are many things it could have been, slowing down on the meat seems to have helped. Then again, it could all be mental.

I’ve done a horrible job staying in touch with people in Ukraine. It has a little to do with how rarely I’m online now. With so much time on my hands, I used to spend hours on the internet. If I was in my apartment, my netbook was open and a podcast was playing. I checked sites every 20 minutes for updates, browsed pointless things, and devoured the news. Now, I hardly have patience for more than 15 minutes online. I remember I felt this way when I came home last Christmas for 2 weeks. I felt like I had way too much I’d rather do than be online. I know this will pass, and I need to kick it soon, in relation to the fact that I need to be online to communicate with my friends who got me through the past 2 years of my life. It’s a New Year’s resolution, to stay in touch.

As for the blog, I am so thankful for those of you who have followed my journey and read my stories. Since I moved to WordPress about 6 months in, I’ve received 8,347 hits on my blog. Wow! I enjoy writing, but I enjoy the experiences that inspire my stories more. Maybe at another point in my life, I’ll find some experience worth writing about. Until then, I’m going to enjoy the humdrum of life at home while remembering what insights and strength my Peace Corps service taught me.

Jessica