Home For Summer Vacation!

On Wednesday I’ll be going home for a 24-day vacation. The last time I was there was right before I left for Korea in August of 2017. It’s been two years since I’ve been home and I cannot wait. Two years! That’s half the time you spend at college, that’s 11th and 12th grade of High School, half a presidency without seeing my family. When I left my little sister was still in college, she couldn’t drink legally and now she’s 22. From when I booked my flight almost three months ago, it’s been constantly on my mind, something I’ve continuously looked forward to. I need to go home, to see my family and to get away from Korea for some time. In the past, I’ve gone home every summer, at the time, I didn’t realize going home was like recharging my batteries, it made it easier to be away.  Two years without that and Korea is starting to get to me.  Recently things have been difficult because I’ve been getting easily annoyed. Instead of accepting the extreme cultural differences, like I did when I first arrived, at this  point I’ve come to resent them.  I’m hoping after going home and coming back with a year left to teach, my outlook will change.

Two years away from home changes you, any extended period away from home changes you, but what I think has changed most is how I view the U.S.  I’m nervous about going home to my country where I’m saddened by its current state, to watch from the outside as it deteriorates. Instead of being a country at the forefront of change and positivity it seems to be the opposite.  I’m not who I was when I was last at home, but neither is the U.S.