Welcome back... to America?

One of my favorite places to write is in the airport, which is where I am right now. LaGuardia Airport in NYC to be exact. It provides a great opportunity for reflection and contemplation. I arrived back in the USA 11 days ago. It's weird to be in the States. Not necessarily bad or good, just different.   

 I cannot describe how much I have enjoyed my time in New York City. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what is next for me. I still don't have an exact answer to that, but I am discovering that the path for my life probably isn't as linear as I once would have liked. I'm learning to enjoy the lack of linearity within. 

I made a list the night before I turned 21 of thirty things I want to do before I'm 30. Sometimes I reflect on that and even scroll back to the photos on my phone to find it. wait.... let me look back real quick before I can write what's next...... AND BACK TO NORMAL PROGRAMMING. I've done about half of the things on the list, and I'm only 23! Wow, I guess I keep impressing myself. (feel free to eye roll here) Some of the things left on the list are things completely out of my control, but there are some that are still able to happen within what control I have. 

These things left on the list that I'm going to work on are now going to be loosely now described as my passion projects. As I am working on figuring out what God has in store for me next, what career I should go after, and how I can live out the callings in my life, I think I'm going to work on these passion projects. I've talked about doing some of these for a few years, but it never felt like the right timing for things to work out. 

When I arrived back in Chicago from China, I had no idea how this going back to America would work. The adjustment from 13 million in my city to less than 1,300 people in the town back at home is rather startling. Everything is in English. It's nice, just mentally overwhelming. From living independently and solo traveling part of the world to living with my mom and sister and (thankfully) borrowing my dad's Suburban. This is real life, just different. 

New York has been a wonderful mediator in this adjustment. It's kind of fun to tell local New Yorkers that it seems so small and quiet compared to where I used to live. I'm so thankful that I'm able to travel with Esther and enjoy community with her. Traveling is where I can clear my head to think objectively, and that definitely happened during the last few days.