Entendàmonos

Whoever tells you that they travel to find themself is full of it. Traveling is about getting lost, about losing yourself. It`s about beginning to question everything about you, about where you`re from, about what you do, and why you do it. Traveling confuses you more. Challenges your values, your morals, your assumptions, and certainly your expectations. I realized that home is a word I can no longer define. Obviously Glenview, Illinois is home, but so is Còrdoba, Argentina, because I have grown as much here in 4 months as I did in 19 years in Glenview, and so is Ithaca, New York, and so is Siliguri, India. I am more confused than ever about everything. We use a line from a famous tango song to summarize how we feel after 4 months in Argentina: Y ahora no se quien yo soy. And now I don`t know who I am. I`ve reevaluated evrything. Beliefs that I held when I arrived in July were comepletely changed, and things I never cared about before I`ve become very passionate about. It`s when you`re thrown out of your comfort zone, into a completely different world where you have to start all over, where you have no friends, no family, no ties to your past, that you can really begin thinking. I`ve been through a lot here. I realize I`ve changed more than I believed I could, and now I`m throwing myself back into that old world. In one month I go back to that old life, the old me, back to the same places, people, society, expectations, hell even language. I`m picturing re-entry shock. I know that I feel completely lost right now, but in one month I`ll be lost in a world I`ve known all my life. Asì es. Y cuando me conoces, me voy.