Made It Back Home and Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey guys! I’m back from Taiwan. The flight was faster than I expected – 10 hours. The flight felt very fast, except I didn’t get any sleep. I couldn’t because I don’t think I can sleep sitting up or having my face on my arms. The food was actually better than expected – simple pasta meal and an egg omelet.

When I got to the Los Angeles airport, it felt weird, as if I was a foreigner stepping into a new land, except I have been living here all my life. When I checked in and showed the counter person my passport, he looked at it, looked at me, and looked it again. Then he said, “What happened to the hair?” (I used to have spiky hair, now I have long hair). I really didn’t know how to respond, so I smile and said, “Changed.” He stamped my passport, looked at me, smiled, and said, “Welcome home.” At that moment, I realized I was finally at home.

The drive home was about 40 minutes from Los Angeles. It felt weird that the road was so wide open! When I got home, there was a nostalgic feeling. I looked at my room, the old pictures of me, and the books I have read in the past and felt a numbing feeling go through my body. I guess it has been too long inside this room.

Because of jet lag and lack of sleep in the plane, I slept early… about 8PM. I found myself waking up kind of early too – about 3:45 AM. There was nothing to do so I kind of just browsed around on the internet to see what was there. But my mind was still on what was going back in Taiwan, what I had experienced living there for almost an entire year. For the first time in a long time, I felt… alone, and empty.

The morning went by slow. I saw the sunrise from the window. It was very beautiful, a small glow of orange surrounded by a faint layer of blue sky. The whole process only took 30 minutes to turn from dark to light. I always thought it took longer. Then out of the blue, I grabbed a recorder from my sweater and pressed play. I listened to a recording session by Will Smith talking about how we have the ability to make a choice, to make a decision about what we want to be and where we want to go. I thought it was very powerful and his voice motivated me to look up again.

I have decided that I am here. It was a good time in Taiwan, but I have no control of that. I will make the best of what is now and what is in the future. I will continue to blog and not let anything stop me from doing so. I am grateful that I have a home and family to be there when I need them to be. And I think that is what today is all about, Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a day of giving and I hope I have given the people who have visited my blog something to learn about in life so they can grow. I had just finished a great dinner and spent some quality time with family and friends sharing about our past experiences. I hope your turkey was delicious too! So, I just wanted to end this special article to me as a new day towards continuing my blog in a different country. With that said, hope you had a good night and Happy Thanksgiving!

photo credit: egmb757lover