What No One Told Me Once The Journey Was Over

What no one told me about traveling, was what happens after that plane finally lands and you're back where you began. 

People tend to only mention the glamorous things about traveling, the things you see and experience, the growth that comes from it and the people you meet along the way. But what about when all of the glamour stops, your'e back in your own bed, the Instagram pictures slow down and become less exciting, you enter back into your old routine and you go back to a new normal.

After spending half a year in Uganda, the best six months i had ever experienced, six months of meeting incredible people, traveling around the country with freedom and wonderlust, learning about myself, my faith and becoming closer to God than i had ever been before, it was a dream. Almost quite literally. Now that i'm back home, Uganda almost seems to be unreal, like i just dreamt of it and it never really happened in real life. 

No one told me that once i got home that i would feel like nothing changed. No one told me that it feels like someone pressed pause while i was gone and when i got home it went on again like nothing new. No one told me that i would feel like a million bucks the first couple weeks i was back and then week four, everyone forgot i even left. No one told me that i would gain back every pound and more that i lost and stuff myself to the point of throwing up. I didn't know how much frustration i would feel, constantly feeling like people don't understand things outside of themselves, outside of what the American culture outlines for us. 

Life after the journey is frustrating, your heart constantly aches to be back or to be somewhere else, you crave rice and beans everyday, you constantly miss people, the word 'weird' has become an overused word in your vocabulary because when your at a restaurant and you can get free (good/clean) water WITH ice is a weird feeling, when people dont understand that you can eat local food for three months straight and it would be the same cost as one Red Robin burger...its weird. When you can swim in a lake or river and not worry about parasites and large animals in the water its a weird feeling. 

My point here is not to discourage any sort of traveling, im just being honest in the inevitable struggle after the journey is over that no one talks about. While the struggle is certainly real, you gain so much by it. 

You gain a new perspective, you become thankful in so many things, you realize that some people around you know what youre feeling or at least willing to listen and nod their head and especially your dentist who, thankfully, had some grace on me when the first thing i said to her was "im so sorry, i ate lot of the rice that had rocks in it and i drank soda everyday." and even my doctor that doesnt think the "bite" on my leg that is still here is "interesting" but "nothing to worry about"...

One of the things ive taken away from traveling is taking certain situations and thinking of them as learning situations, realizing that this is just part of the plan God designed for me, while i cant be in Africa at the moment, as much as i want to be, God wants me to be present here, in Woodinville Washington.

Theres certainly something that comes from living somewhere else for awhile, that takes up a place in your heart and because of that i know that one day i will be back on those red dirt roads, embracing my Ugandan family again someday soon.