New Thoughts

So, I'm sure many of you have thought that I have dropped off the face of the earth. Well, I haven't, but I have definintely hit hibernation mode, with few excursions here and there. I was encouraged by people to keep writing even though my time in Liberia had officially come to an end, but the trouble with writing when I first returned was where to find my inspiration? Honestly, if you knew my day, which usually consists of a late wake up, cups of coffee, a trip to the gym, and maybe a few hours of tv and more eating in a day...you would understand the lack of intelligent or meaningful thoughts going through my mind.

But recently, I have been feeling more like putting my thoughts down. Where will it lead? Who knows, but I feel like it's time to write again. For those of you looking for some profound thoughts on reintegration, you should probably look up those authors who have studied these things for years and written extremely valuable resources. Mine will be more personal, and will simply be little "snippets" of my experiences. They will be the moments in my day which catch me off guard, and make me think to myself, "why am I rethinking this experience?"

Most recently one of these experiences happened to me at a 7-11 store. I had this very simple experience where I was counting out 5 cent candies into my bag, and I started, "5, 10, 15, 20...", and I hit 50 cents and suddently this overwhelming feeling and thought came into my mind, that if I keep going for 11 more pieces of candy I would surpass the average daily income of a Liberian. Something just sunk in my heart, that here I was counting out my candy that I had a craving for and I would be spending more on my sugar high than the average person in Liberia had to survive.

You would think it would be the big things that would make me stop and feel a deep conviction. The funny or even ironic thing is that I drove to the 7-11 in my recently bought a car, and didn't even think about that purchase. As with many of you, I'm constantly bombarded by the price of housing, increasing fuel costs, and increasing food costs, but it was the simple thing...the 5 cent candies that made me stop and think. As painful as these moments are, I want them to continue, and I don't want to become insensitive to them. I want to be stopped in my tracks and made to think about other things beyond the struggles of what I experience financially in my home culture, and most of all, I don't want to forget those who so deeply impacted me overseas.