11 months feels like a long time. It’s flown by, but dragged on, all at the same time. Third Eye Blind reference aside, as I begin to approach my final days of the Race, I’m trying my hardest to prepare myself for re-entry.
Re-entry. What even is that? Well, essentially it’s me coming home. To a home I left 11 months ago. Will it still be the same? Will I still be the same? How will I connect my old life in America to the much different life I’ve been experiencing these last few months?
Home life will go well. I can’t wait to get home to mom and dad and the sisters. I can’t wait to catch them up, to try and share my experiences with them somehow, try and make it feel like they were there. Hometown life? Maybe. Friends have gotten married. Moved. Come back. Old friends are changing and I changed too. It’ll be fun to get to know our new selves. I’m not scared about my home changing. Or my family changing.
I’m scared about the radio. I haven’t heard a radio top 40 song in so long. I know a few that got popular, but not 40. I’m scared and thankful that I’ll be completely out of the loop on viral videos, articles, anything with the word ‘viral’. Sports. Oh sports how I’ve missed you. I have no idea how the last college football season ended, other than I remember Ohio State was good or something. I’ve missed so much SportsCenter and so much news and so much American Idol, if that even happened this year. Will I come back and fail at making small talk with people? Will people think I’ve lived under a rock for 11 months?
And the biggest question: how will I keep this up. Other than the sports, I’ve loved being out of the loop. I’ve loved having no idea what commercials are cool or what’s happening on YouTube or what celebrities are doing. I’ve loved it. It’s so freeing. I’ve lost a whole year. And I wouldn’t want it back for the world.
