Epilogue |
 |
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land;
it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.
-G. K. Chesterton
|
||
|
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; |
| 20 December, 1996 | King of Prussia, PA | USA | ||
I won't discuss the journey home. Seven hour delays, blizzards closing the airport, plane wrecks, no one to meet me at the airport due to accidents and delays, and a lonely ride to my parents house by public transportation. I arrived to find everything practically unchanged. A new fireplace, a Xmas tree up and lights flashing. A home with clean sheets and carpeting and curtains in the windows. The family dog sniffing at me as if I were a stranger.
From that moment, I had to adjust to the idea that I was not moving on again. My travels were over for now, and yet it didn't seem real. On some mornings, I would wake up convinced I was just living in some strange dream of being home. Many days, I woke up and lay staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what country I was in today. But on other days, when "normal" life felt just too normal, I had to go through my piles of gear from my trip, look at my photos, run my fingers over the scars, hold my lathi - just to reassure myself that it all hadn't been just a dream. The company took me back three weeks later, I bought a used Honda with some of the last of my travel money, and arrived in Pennsylvania only hours before the "Blizzard of 96" dumped over 3 meters of snow outside, locking me into a friend's apartment. I quickly fell back into my old work routine, working long hours and little social life. Even though I still felt burnt out from traveling, the compulsion to pick up and go increased daily in the months to follow until I finally had to leave once again. I took a break from working my 60 hour weeks. A one month trip to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel finally completed the last of the destinations I had planned from the beginning. While it was only a short trip, it seemed to serve as an outlet for the last of the demons remaining from my trip. A way to finally say goodbye to the road and turn forward to my current life.
Results?
Did any noteworthy results come of all this ecstasy and agony? It's hard to say. I returned home US$11,000 poorer, 7kg lighter, with a head full of foreign sights, languages, and experiences, and certainly a greatly changed set of values. I found myself much less affected by day-to-day annoyances. While people at work stressed out over deadlines and I worked 60 hour weeks, I was curiously relaxed. Sitting in traffic, as others cursed and blew their horns, I sat back and watched the reactions of people around me. I found much more confidence in both myself and in my abilities. I had become extroverted, more of a charmer. While I won't make this trip out to be some sort of magical transformation, it did have a marked change on who I was and how I saw the world around me. The Traveler was here to stay.
The End
Well, dear listener, this is the end. I hope you enjoyed my tale. Even if you haven't, mind you, I have at least enjoyed telling it! Live. |
||||
|
©Copyright Seán Connolly |
||||
