Transitions

Today's post is a guest one by Lisa, illustrated by a Skype screenshot!

"After spending almost half of my life as a missionary kid in Cambodia, making the transition back to life in England and the Western world has certainly been something of an adventure for me. Despite only having been back for a month, I have already been through what has felt like a rollercoaster of emotion. Saying goodbye to my family for the year was a low point, but since then I have had so many high points – laughing until I cried with the [host family's] girls, having endless bubble baths and glasses of fresh, English milk, chatting away happily with my family over Skype and seeing old friends again, to name a few. My first trip to Tesco filled me with amazement – I had almost forgotten the abundance of lovely food here in England, and couldn’t wait to help myself to sausage rolls, nectarines and all the other silly little things I missed so much living in Cambodia. The truth is that at first, even the thought of doing something as ordinary as getting the bus filled me with anxiety – what was I supposed to say? What if I couldn’t find the right change, or ended up in Greenstead, or even violated some unspoken code of conduct that all ordinary English people knew?

Since then, however, I feel like I have really settled into life here in England with [my host] family. I can now be seen each morning catching the bus in to town like any other English college student, but I know that I’ll never forget the time I spent in Cambodia – it will always be a part of me. You might even say that a little piece of my heart is still there, across all the oceans that lie between us."