As I feverishly unpack from my first year at Kalamazoo College and repack for my summer in Kenya, I realize how different this experience will be from my semester in Kenya with Annie Garau and am struck by how emotional this realization has made the preparation.
This is not to say that I am not brimming with excitement for the upcoming summer with Mariah Hennen and the many new experiences that we will have in Kenya – I am. I know that these 7 weeks will change, shape, and grow us in ways that I can’t imagine and in ways which my previous experiences in Kenya did not. I am overjoyed to be in Kenya in just 9 short days.
But, as I check the appropriate airplane fluid ounces and work through my mile-long to-do list, I can’t help but reflect on those aspects of my time in Kenya in 2010 which I won’t be packing with me, and those which never leave my side. It is a time of both great sadness and great happiness as I remember what I consider to be the most formative four months of my life and as I look forward to a summer of further learning and growing.
(because I only think in lists these days):
– to stay in my 2010 suitcase:
- a determination so strong that I don’t think I am physically capable of experiencing it again
- naiveté which brought both refreshing optimism and hindering selfishness
- ringworm (hopefully)
- cautiousness to be fully present
- a built-in independent study (more fondly, a support system) which provided open, understanding ears and which I will greatly miss upon my return
- answers which I thought I knew (but didn’t)
- unwavering gumption toward teachers and parents (the thought of which both terrifies and delights me)
– in my lifelong suitcase:
- ringworm medication
- pictures of Britney, Evans, and Wellington
- words of encouragement from friends, family, mentors, and teachers which carry me through each day and each step
- productive stupidity
- a friendship unlike any I will experience again but which will always remain
- endless questions toward understanding
- a feeling of home in a place which is often seen as distant and unknown
My actual suitcases are very far from packed, I am currently a mad-woman dashing with post-it note reminders, and my airport candy is not yet bought… but I am ready to be in Kenya again.
callie daniels-howell 