After 4 months in Washington, DC interning with International Justice Mission, two weeks in India visiting family for the first time in ten years, and one week in Seattle and Vancouver to visit more family, I'm finally home in New York.
Of course that travel and time away from home is nothing compared to the journey that's ahead, but it's definitely been what I'd like to think of as a mini-whirlwind.
I think it took almost four months to get fully adjusted to living and working in DC – battling ridiculous morning traffic, scoping out the best places to eat, finding affordable grocery stores, figuring out which was the least sketchy laundromat, bonding with a set of incredible people who became even more incredible friends. And then, when I felt most comfortable, like I had figured it all out, it was time for me to leave.
I came home for a day and a half, un-packed, re-packed and flew out to Hyderabad, India. I fell in and out of sleep the whole 22 hours I spent on the plane, watched terrible movies, and came dangerously close to screaming for fear that the plane I'd boarded was just going to fly forever. After landing in a hot and humid aiport and hugging family tighter than I thought I could, I fought to stay awake the whole ride home, reminding myself that on my first trip back to India in ten years time, I needed to soak in everything. At temperatures anywhere from 103-111 degrees (and no air conditioners), I learned that deodorant was my best friend. I re-met the people I called family, re-learned their stories, their passions, and fell in love with the laughter I was surrounded with. I volunteered to be a teacher's assistant at a church's Vacation Bible School, and remembered why Jesus loves little children. I got a ridiculous tan, sweated off a pound or two, and ate more rice than could fit in all of Long Island. And then, when I had grown attached to the smell of India that for ten years I had so desperately missed, when I knew what each and every unlabeled spice jar in my aunt's cupboard held, when I stopped waking up every morning at 3AM and finally adjusted to the ten and a half hour time difference, I boarded a flight to JFK.
I landed and felt accomplished at having conquered the urge to drive on the left side of the road. I walked across the stage of my university wearing a bright red gown to claim the degree I had been granted in December of 2011. I smiled for pictures, hugged friends that I hadn't seen since finals week in December, and resisted the urge to throw up the biriyani that Qatar Airways had used to sabotage me.
I went home, un-packed, re-packed and flew out (with my family this time) to Seattle. I bickered and wrestled with the West Coast brother I missed while my mom, sister, and sister-in-law tsk-tsk-ed and shook their heads at me simultaneously. I spent part of my time in Vancouver, Canada, visiting my sister-in-law's family, and became totally lost in the beauty of God's creation. I took more pictures that my camera could fit, ate seafood that I practically picked out of the water myself, and never got used to seeing mountains when I turned my head. And then, when I felt at home waking up to the smell of my brother's espresso or my 4 and 3 year old nephew and niece poking my eyes, asking if I were still asleep, when I grew accustomed to talking over 4 separate conversations and 12 other people in order to ask a question, I found myself listening to the safety speech of a jetBlue air hostess on a plane headed back to New York.
And with that, I'm home. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to finally sleep in my own bed and trip over my own nightstand, but I now live knowing that when I'm most comfortable, I might be shaken out of my comfort. It's happened before, and it'll happen again.
What keeps me going, though, is that every experience was welcomed and richer because of what came before it. And just like that, God keeps me on my toes. The second I'm comfortable with my spiritual life, He picks me up and puts me somewhere else – somewhere I'm scared to be, but eventually figure out with His help, somewhere I become a better person and learn to appreciate more of what He does in my life.
The past five months of my life were a mini-whirlwind, and the 11 months of the World Race will be a complete whirlwind, but my God controls the storm, and I'm learning that I need only to be still (Job 37:15; Exodus 14:14).
