America 31: Home

Being away for so long does strange things to you. The places you visit and the things you see, no matter how nice they are, still feel unmistakeably foreign. This might be a fine place, but it's not your place. You imagine returning home, feeling that distance shrink away to be replaced by the easy comfort of familiarity. In reality, it's never quite the same. Maybe home has changed while you were away but, more likely, you have. That foreignness you were immersed in absorbed slowly into you, and now the places still look the same but they feel different. Is this growth you feel? Have you become enlightened or just unmoored? Still, after a while the feeling fades and, like waking from a dream, you almost wonder if you ever went away.