the unfinished and unaccounted for rest of the story

Nearly eight months after my last post, life is settling back down. Coming home from Cambodia has been harder than I thought it would be. I had heard that culture shock can be bad coming back home. But I couldn't imagine what it might be like.

I'm settling in to life here. It's different than before. I will never settle into life the way it was. At first I was fine. I was glad I went. I was glad to be home. It was good to see my friends and family again. It took all summer (all six weeks of it) to eat all the different foods I hadn't had in a while. People would ask me about culture shock. The only shock was that I thought I didn't have culture shock. I didn't know what was wrong with me. When I left for school, I hugged my dad, brother, sister-in-law, and mom. I cried. I wasn't ready to leave again yet. I hadn't had enough time. Not enough time. I lived a year in another country, with no one I had previously known. I didn't even begin to share that year and all of its experiences with those I love. I didn't want to leave and feel alone again.