In only 12 days I will be back in America, and in only 16 days I will be back in Oregon with friends and family.
Coming home is different than leaving. When we leave, we say goodbye to a life that will most likely be there when we return. When we come home, we are saying goodbye to something we will never again have. Never again will we live with these people, sharing this particular lifestyle. With that being said, coming home brings a completely different set of emotions.
Feel free to use this blog as a set of guidelines to consider. We are encouraged to process our race thoroughly and prepare ourselves for scenarios and conversations we will be having when we get home. I’ve talked to a couple world race alumni, asked squad-mates, and did a little brainstorming myself, and I have come up with some helpful tips for you to best prepare how to interact with your soon-to-be-home world racer.
I think one of the biggest concerns we have coming home is how to answer ambiguous questions when we are in an environment that only allows us to have a 30 second to 1 minute response. How do I give a briefing of 11 months in 11 different countries in only 30 seconds? Ambiguous, general questions are really difficult to answer (we’ve all experienced this from the classic ‘how was your summer?’ question).
Here is a list of questions to avoid. These questions came from real life examples:
“How was your trip?” (this is like me saying how was the last year of your life)
“How was your vacation?” (this was not a vacation)
“Aren’t you so happy to be home?” (we probably have a lot of mixed emotions about being home)
“Was it the best year of your life?” (chances are it was the best and the worst)
“What was your favorite part?” (favorite part of which part?!)
“What did you learn?” (do you want the entire list!?)
We understand that in passing, it’s a normal thing to ask these kinds of questions to be polite. They are the first thing off the top of your head. We aren’t going to be upset with you if you ask these questions. We also aren’t trying to scare you away from asking anything. My friend who recently got home from the world race told me this:
“The thing that sucks the most is the lack of questions from my friends.”
Whoa. That’s REAL.
So, please ask questions. Just be sensitive about what questions to ask, and be aware of the environment. And don’t worry, I’d say most of us are very open to sitting down with you and answering all of the questions you have.
Here are some examples of good questions to ask:
“What was your favorite culture?”
“What was your favorite ministry?”
“What was the most challenging culture?”
“What was the most challenging ministry?”
“What was your favorite host like?”
“Would you recommend the world race to someone else? Why/Why not?
“Describe your world race experience in 3 words.”
“After being on the race, if you went back in time wold you still say yes to going?”
“Was there ever a point where you wanted to come home? How did you get through that?”
“What was your favorite adventure day?”
“What did you do for adventures in each country?”
“Where was the most uncomfortable place you slept?”
“What was the weirdest thing you ate?”
“Favorite country as far as food goes?”
“What kind of rues did the organization give you to follow, and how was that for you?”
These questions are helpful because they are more specific. Therefore, we can give specific answers. So, with all of that being said, here are some other topics & things that are important to us that we would love to bring you into the loop about:
Stories. I have so many stories from the race. Sad stories, funny stories, spiritually intense stories, and horror stories. Ask for a story in any of these categories and I’d be happy to tell.
Be open to feedback. We have been in a culture where feedback is normally given. It is meant to help you grow into the person God intended you to be, not at all meant to hurt you. Be open to it, and feel free to give it to us as well.
Just like you want to hear about us, we want to hear about you. Let us ask questions. Please, don’t avoid them because you feel like your last year doesn’t compare to our experience. We desire to be brought into the time that we missed.
Lastly, we are praying about having grace for those who didn’t experience what we did. We changed our perspectives on the race. We realize that we are going to need a lot of grace for people who didn’t experience what we did. How can we judge someone for not knowing? We can’t. Just know that when you complain about mundane things, it kills us inside. We went without, we chose abandonment for a year. Just try to keep that in mind. As we seek grace, please have grace when we get frustrated or overwhelmed. We are sorry in advance.
Well, that’s all I have to say about that! I hope this was helpful for you. I hope you read it knowing that it’s coming from a place of love! See you soon!
