We had an unexpected day off from school today (written May 22nd) . Standard 7
is taking the Regional Mock Examinations today and tomorrow. Because of this,
the other classes have been asked to stay home so that the school will be quiet
and Class 7 will be able to concentrate and perform well. Being in the routine
that I am, I still woke up naturally around 5:30 in the morning and couldn't go
back to sleep. I have nothing to do today and I have been thinking a lot about
home and Scranton as my friends get ready to graduate and I hit the one year
mark since my own commencement. So, I decided to turn on my computer and look
through pictures from college. What a wonderful and horrible idea. Horrible
because I am sorely missing my Scranton family and all of the incredible
memories I made in the Electric City. But also wonderful because flipping
through the years in pictures has helped me recognize how much I grew up in
college, how much I have changed for the better, and how all of those
experiences and people have shaped me into the person I am today…the teacher in
Tanzania, a dream fulfilled.
It’s amazing how much a person can change in four years. I
think a lot about the first two years of college as a means of exploring...I
was trying to find the right friends, get involved in the right activities,
take the right classes, and plan the right future. And it took a long time for
me to find those things. Sometimes I regret the first couple of years of college;
I feel like I wasted my time, I’m not the most proud of that person.
But during the second half of my time in Scranton, I easily
fell into the right group of people, the right activities, and was on the right
path to the bright future I wanted for myself. I found the friends that I hope
to have for a lifetime; they are more than friends, they are, as I often refer
to them as, my Scranton family. Maybe
it took me a few years to find them, but what’s important is that I have them
now…now that the ‘easy’ college lives we led together are over, they are still
there for me and have never stopped loving me. Sometimes I’m sad that I decided
to come all the way to Tanzania and leave behind what would have been two great
years in my early 20s with my best friends, just being the American young
adults that we are. I know I am missing out on some great memories and
adventures but I also know that everyone will still be down for some good times
when I return in 2014.
Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is, thank you. Thank
you to my best friends for supporting me in my desire to live this
counter-cultural life in Tanzania, for cheering me on as I dive deeper into
this experience, and for continuing to be there for me from five, six, seven
time zones and eight, nine, ten thousand miles away. It means the world and I
know that I would not have come this far if it weren’t for everything they taught
me and encouraged me to do during our time together in that small city in Northeastern
PA.
We really were a part of something incredibly beautiful and
incredibly unique in Scranton, but the best part is, that even a year later,
the beauty continues…only now its spread all over the world instead of just one
small part of Pennsylvania.
