Back "home"

I read this good article about transplanting or moving to a new location. And yet, though the article is good and speaks to me to some level because of my move back home, my experience has been different because of that very reason... I'm back home.

Getting readjusted has been difficult for all the reasons mentioned in the article: Expect disorientation, new relationships take time, old relationships will change, transplanting means growth. The additional problem is that the "new relationships" are really old relationships, and the "old relationships" are new relationships, well, at least in comparison to the "new relationships." I've known the people in my "new surroundings," here at home, longer than those of my "old surroundings," Japan.

And so, it'd be safe to say that I've expected too much of you all here on this side of the Pacific. I treated my American relationships as if they were old relationships that could just pick up where they left off. And though we may share in old memories and laugh at the same old jokes, the fact of the matter is that my American friends have changed, and so have I.

It's just been so difficult to see a familiar face, and feel like I have to start the relationship all over again.