Kyle, Bas, Rene, Erin, and Amanda at Basil's Goodbye Party
Rene and I
Natalie, Josh, Mandy, and Kristin at Junior Prom =)
Amanda, Rene, and I last day of junior year
Sarah and Basil - last day of junior year
Josh, LeAnna, and I in front of Hard Rock Tokyo
Kira, Megumi, Mayumi, Ayaka's friend, Me, and Ayaka (our host sister) after our party
Crazy, right?
I am finally readjusting to Kentucky time, in the hopes of no longer being nocturnal, haha. But one thing is for sure: said trip to the other side of the world - it changed my life. It is almost impossible for me to even begin describing how *contemplates word choice*... relieving it felt to be somewhere other than:Crazy Suburbia,
Hick State, USA
Never in my life have I spent two more amazing weeks making new friends, enjoying myself, loving me for me, and being surrounded by people who truly, whole heartedly believe that peace is not lost in this chaotic world. For those two weeks I felt more centered and balanced than I ever knew was possible. Until I travel again, I am not sure that I will know truly what happened to me over there but one of two things did for sure: I fell in love with that country or I fell in love with seeing the world.
To each and every one of you out there who thinks I have lost my mind, please pay attention: There is more to life than this little box surrounding us; more than our rooms full of our memories, more than our houses, than our communities filled with self-indulgent priorities, our country which is way too in love with itself. Don't get me wrong - somethings are truly and wholeheartedly American that I would never care to lose (like the feeling of going to a baseball game in the middle of summer and having the drunk guy in front of you fall on his face cheering for his team or walking down a city street knowing that with enough dedication to your work an entire country could know your name). But something hits you square in the face when you first set foot in another country - one where you don't see tourists every day and one where the people refuse to give up fighting for things the rest of the world has already deemed a lost cause - there is something that hits about their generosity, open hearts, and smiling faces that makes you feel like you have finally found where you belong. Which is completely ironic in every sense considering you are on the opposite side of the world from everything you know. To tell you all the truth, I have never felt safer in my life, even walking my dog around my neighborhood, then I did walking down the streets of Tokyo with maybe three or four people that I had known all of three days. And driving throught the countryside, air not clouded with smog or pollution, getting off a plane and not having the smell of fast food an arteries clogging be the first thing to invade your senses - it's so beyond a beautiful feeling. I miss it already.
But summer is here, and there are parties to be planned, movies to be seen, laziness to be enjoyed, and colleges to look at *rolls eyes*. So I will leave you with a playlist for my time in Japan and will hopefully update sooner this time. Thanks for reading!
Playlist: Wonderful Journey - Anastasia Soundtrack, Slide - Goo Goo Dolls, A Whole New World - Aladdin Soundtrack, Dare You to Move - Switchfoot, Big Yellow Taxi - Counting Crows, Somewhere Only We Know - Keane, Broken Bridges - Lindsey Haun and Toby Keith, Hanging By A Moment - Lifehouse, Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Live Like You Were Dyin' - Tim McGraw, Moonlight Sonata - Ludwig von Beethoven, Calling You - Blue October, Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down, My Immortal - Evanescence, 100 Years - Five for Fighting, The Gods Love Nubia - Heather Headly, Move Along -All-American Rejects, Ridiculous - Bowling For Soup, Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis, Touch My Body - Mariah Carey, Sexy Can I - Ray J featuring Yung Berg, Apologize - Timbaland featuring One Republic, Cotton Eyed Joe - Rednex, Photograph - Nickelback
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