I am feeling so many things right now. Many things all at
once… pure joy, fear, sad, overwhelmed, denial, hopeful, excited, and
distraught. Preparing to leave is
in a word, overwhelming. First is
our stuff. We have to condense our
stuff to 5 suitcases. Which means
that we are selling and giving away 3 years of our lives piece by piece. There
is no room for sentimental attachment because there is literally no room.
Other than the stuff, the people must be gone through. Goodbyes… Oh the goodbyes.
It is difficult to explain the bond that has been created
with the people that we live and work with here. The closest thing I can compare it to is college. We have survived China with these
beautiful individuals, traveled to foreign lands, shared weekly dinners, professional
workshops, struggled through culture shock, survived several bouts of food
poisoning, taught together, laughed together and in a few cases, cried. We have far more commonalities with
these individuals than differences.
They come from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and
other countries. We share a spirit
for community and a love of travel.
Our backgrounds couldn’t be more different but somehow we have bonded
over our careers in teaching and being in the same place at the same time. I will deeply miss many of these people
but hold out hope for seeing them again soon, perhaps in a new country.
I fully realize that being overseas meant that we had to
sacrifice relationships at home.
Missing my niece Isabel’s first birthday party is a memory that
stings. Knowing that our physical
presence would be missed, Matt and I did the best we could to keep in
touch. We spent nearly every
Saturday and often Sunday mornings Facetiming family. Unlike many of our international friends we also journeyed
home for every Christmas and as many weeks in the summer as possible. We averaged 10 weeks in the states a
year and that is pretty damned good if you ask me.
When we arrived we had a combined student loan debt of
nearly $100,000. We were both a
bit overwhelmed by this number. We decided to focus hard on chipping away at
it, and as of January this year the remaining balance was $0. What a huge weight lifted! If we would have not come overseas we
would barely have dented this amount.
The travel opportunities that we have been blessed to
experience have been life changing.
We were able to experience so many new cultures we went places that I
wouldn’t have been able to find on a map before coming here.
So what I am trying to get at is that I am so thankful. I am overflowing with thankfulness.
This experience has been wonderful, heartbreaking, joyous, exciting, difficult,
brilliant, and eye opening. I have
learned more about myself, my marriage, my country, my values, and my world
than I ever thought possible. I am
truly blessed by this experience and I am bubbling over with gratitude. I am changed on the most fundamental
level and I am so so thankful.
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