Coming Back is Hard to Do
I hope you all read that to the tune of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do," because that was my explicit intent when coming up with that title. I have been back in the States for two weeks now, and while it is a relief to have made it back safe and sound, I cannot pretend that adjusting back to life at home was necessarily an easy feat to achieve.
My trip to Ireland was the best time of my life- it allowed me to meet new people and have new experiences that I could not have imagined back home. The farther from that time I get, the more I realize how valuable it was and will continue to be. The independence I gained and steps from my comfort zone I took overseas are already improving my life and the thirst for another trip has taken hold. What I want to be honest about, however, is how difficult it has been to fall back into step with the going-ons of Indiana. I was only gone for a month, yes, so the issue was not that I didn't remember how life works here: it was that I didn't feel completely willing to do so.
My conservative rural town holds none of the charms of quaint Maynooth, and sprawling fields of corn cannot match the beauty of Connemara. The everyday beauty I so loved in Ireland is already dearly missed, and I find myself wondering why anyone should waste their life living so far from beautiful things. The good aspect of this, however, is that now I am already planning more trips to the beautiful things, the places in the world I never imagined I would go to.