Day 62: Gone to Look for America

This song has been stuck in my head for the past month or so, and I’ve noticed
an almost laughable amount of time wondering why Simon & Garfunkel’s music just tend to find their way into my head. Recently the song, America.

I for the first half of the month I was butchering the lyrics in my head. The
line “I’ve got some real-estate here in my bag” I kept singing, in my head,
“I’ve got some dinosaurs here in my bag.” I knew it was wrong, but I like the idea of a dinosaur in a bag.

Now beyond the lyrics to the song, the idea of coming back to America has just
been on the tip of my mind for the past month. Why didn’t Neil Diamond’s Coming

to America didn’t come baffles me, but Simon and Garfunkel it is.

America.

I’m sure to have reverse culture shock when I return I can almost feel it, but
hopefully it’s not too severe. I might go through distaste for culture people
and other things. It’s often something that happens to those who travel abroad for extended periods of time. It’s happened every time I’ve come back.

I find that the biggest thing is that you can tell stories, show pictures and give souvenirs, but you can never really have the people around you understand
the experiences you’ve been through and what it was actually like. And usually you want them to be able to so badly that it feels like you’re a foreigner in your own country.

In my most honest moments, I can say this is the hardest thing for me. I can look at the people that I love the most and truly not explain any of my experiences and give them any justice, which leaves me speechless and searching for something to tell them.

I hope someday they’ll understand, and I hope someday I will have the ability to

share the intricacies of my experiences, and what I see, hear, taste, think and
feel while I’m traversing the foreign landscape and what latter revelations come

from such an impactful experience.

I hope I’ve given you something, what little I have to give.

I hope you’ve learned something, from the immense amount I’ve learned.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it, even a fraction of what I have.

I hope that your hope remains, even if mine falters.

I hope to tell you all about this soon.

-NL