Thursday, August 30, 2012

back in action!

Well, let's give this a go-again, shall we?

I've been back in Quito for about 24 hours. My flight was surprisingly pleasant and the only hiccup so far has been that the light is out in the bathroom of the room I am now in. For the traveling between Buffalo-DC-Atlanta-Quito with no delays and no lost luggage, I see this all as a pretty good start to the year. I also got bumped up for free to business class, so that was a nice last taste of the material world before I begin year two here.

Anyway, so I thought I might give this a try again and maybe be better the second time around (isn't that what we all hope for?). Admittedly, I couldn't even remember the blog site I used and had to google search myself for a bit til it came back to me. I thought to give the blog a try again for several reasons:

1.) I really like writing and miss formal papers from college. I figure if I decide to go into a grad program, any sort of writing habit will help me ease back into school.

2.) A lot happened last year and I never have found time to sort it all out. Even when I was home for about 7 weeks over the summer, it was go-go-go mode, and I had a lot of crazy, scary, sad, thoughts about the difference between my life there and what I have always known to be good and true, and the thousands of realizations and epiphanies I've had since being in Quito since last year. I really need to make sense of it if I ever really want to be happy with what I do next and also satisfied that what I've done here is a good and necessary thing. 

3.) Since seeing face to face a lot of my friends and family, it's been really hard to explain myself, so much so that sometimes I get so overwhelmed by conversation that I can't even say anything more than, "ah, that's nice," kinda thing. Some people are really interested in cracking why I'm doing what I'm doing (which I love), while others either tell me that I should be helping people in my own society (not completely unfair), or seem to think my efforts are in vain or are for my own vanity. Being here last year, I know myself that that is pretty unfair and can be hurtful (I'm a sensitive soul now!), or just based on a different set of life experiences. Perhaps this blog will help others and remind myself to think about the importance of thinking from the outside for inward self reflection. In this way, I suppose you can call my work here vain. :)

Not too much has happened in the past 24 hours other than every sort of human emotion and arriving for a second year of volunteer service in a foreign country :) I was sad to leave my family and friends in Buffalo, my sister and friends in DC, and the creature comforts of home--my beagle puppy included! Already I'm being hit with more responsibility than last year, and the new volunteers are asking me a million and one questions about scheduling, who's who, and where to find materials. A lot of that has been confusing because everything about all of those things have changed, but my experience has taught me enough that its better to go with the flow here, not stress, and listen and pick up as much as possible. It's a new year and a new game for all of us!

So there's a solid start to another attempt to keep whoever reads this and myself, as I am just as curious if not more to see what will come out of this year, inwardly and outwardly. It's just about my bedtime and another day begins tomorrow....

it's so good to be back :)

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