Lianna on being home

Since being home, I’ve really been missing life back in Cape Town.  No longer do I get to look up each day at Table Mountain, no longer do I get to wake up in a house of 17 of my friends, and no longer do I get to see some of the most heartbreaking, yet inspiring things I have ever seen in my life, on a day to day basis. Like Siobhan said, writing this last blog post makes me feel like our trip is finally over, there is not much left of our adventure, only attempting to share it with the people closets to us, which I have found to be very difficult.   Even when I have enough time to explain what I was doing, and the things that took place, I know that I’m failing at describing it accurately.  Perhaps we’ll get a little better as time goes on – the people who did last years symposium seemed to have to down pretty well, but for now it remains difficult to put everything into sentences.

I’m extremely grateful for my time there, the internship of my dreams may not have panned out according to plan, we never did get to go shark cage diving, and I never made it to the top of devils peak (got a little lost) but I guess that shows the benefits of being flexible adaptable and spontaneous (I’m not sure how long that phrase will be stuck in my head). Overall my experience was absolutely amazing, and life changing, and what better way to put that into perspective than returning to my small hometown right away.  Not much changed since I was gone, but looking at it from a whole new perspective, I can appreciate just how quaint and nice it is to live in this small town in rural Connecticut, and while its been a nice vacation back to my old life, staying here has got me antsy for my future.  Now that I have seen part of the world, and been exposed to a whole new culture, I can’t imagine not continuing on in this journey.  Also, learning what I have this past semester, I have been more directed in what I ultimately want to do in life, and with this new knowledge, it seems strange to have a normal summer before starting out on this career.