Wednesday, January 5, 2011

It's a New Year

It has been nearly two months since my last entry.  So much has changed.  I can't believe I am back at school.  Six weeks is a nice long break, but since I was in Guatemala for four of the six weeks learning Spanish with other people from school, it really didn't feel like part of the break.  Except the weekends.  Especially the Saturday I got to travel in Antigua without the entire school group.  Then I could imagine what it must be like to go to Antigua for a vacation from the rough northern winters.  But Guatemala isn't a place to escape to--it is a unique culture to experience and to help.  It is a place where there are unique traditions and expectations.  I got a little fed up with the tourists and wondered why I was there a few times.  It is so hard to experience a culture and come away intact.  Of course, it is hard to experience your own culture and come away intact.  Because there is always the question, where are you coming away to go?

School has already started giving out many homework assignments to teach me how to learn and delve deeper into projects.  It is teaching me how to teach, how to write clearer, how to understand myself, how to understand Latin America, a unique perspective of the Middle East, and how the environment is always in a state of change, although the change may be the same as the growth of a fingernail.  The school wants me to become a strong and efficient communicator.  It wants me to understand Christian Science, and it wants me to be self-aware.  For, I suppose, if you are not aware then how are you able to learn and to help youself?

My good friend and roommate from last quarter has decided to transfer.  Sometimes I question myself when other people leave.  I remember feeling similarly when my good friend from the previous spring break decided she was not going to return in the fall.  Both girls have gone on to great schools and exciting new adventures, but I sometimes don't understand why I am still here and why they have left.  However, the same thing happened in high school.  I remember thinking that we all have different paths, but one path isn't better than the other.  I thought my friends' paths looked really awesome, but they weren't mine. 

Happy New Year!

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