One chapter closing, another about to begin.

I can't believe I'm actually making the official move away from Shanghai. It's strange to say that, as when I first left the States that is exactly what I thought about leaving there. I remember being terrified to move to a completely foreign country with no concrete plan ahead of me. But from what I've learned: you adapt. And that's exactly what I did. Now three years later, I'm completely terrified all over again. A new chapter in my life is about to begin.


I never thought I'd be scared to move home. How backwards is that? But I am. I'm nervous for a million reasons, and not just the obvious ones:  No job, no money, no car, no plans, are all just the tip of the ice-burgh. Culture shock is a real thing, and so is reverse-culture shock. I think I'm most nervous for that. I like to refer back to my favorite lecture from a professor of mine back in college... an excerpt: 


"There is a story that I like to tell my students about a fish in a fishbowl.  There is a way in which a fish swimming around in a fishbowl knows nothing at all about water.  Because water is so much a part of the fish’s life.  It is surrounded by water.  It is embedded in water.  In that sense, the fish does not really know water.  If you want the fish to really understand water, you have to take the fish out of the fishbowl and say, “Look, that’s water.”  Now…if you put the fish back in…the water never looks the same again.  Well, in a certain sense, we’ve all been taken out of our fishbowls.  You have been out of your fishbowl for 3½  months.  Now you have to go back."

But even though I'm scared and nervous for the new chapter to begin, one thing I have learned and am sure about is: I'll adapt.