sarahandryan.net

What’s next?

July 25th, 2010 ryan

In my last post, I mentioned that I’d miss Supermac’s.  That’s because, on Friday, we’re flying back to Texas, and we’ll be living there indefinitely.  But I won’t miss Supermac’s too much, because I’ll be busy missing other things about our time in Europe, chiefly our friends, the activities we’ve done with them, and the talks we’ve had with them.  I expect there’s going to be a fair amount of crying this week as we finish wrapping things up, packing, and making our goodbyes.  Who am I kidding?  We already cry fairly regularly when we think about leaving Ireland.  It’s not that we’re not excited to get back to Texas and spend some time with family and friends, because we are.  We just really love our friends here.  Having moved as many times as we have, I thought this might get easier.  It doesn’t.  But I’m glad for that because if it was easier, that might mean I’d become more callous than I want to be.  You see, I’d much rather have these friends who are close to my heart than not.  I’m reminded that having community costs something, but I think it’s worth the price.

When we left America, we didn’t know much about where we were going, but we did know where we were going, how long we’d likely be there, and some rough ideas of what we’d be doing.  This time around, we know all about where we’re going (Texas and the USA in general).  What we don’t know is what we’ll be doing (I’m currently looking for work) or how long we’ll do whatever it is we end up doing.  We also don’t know where specifically in the USA we’ll be.  With all the uncertainty, I’m a bit reluctant to try my hand at more future predictions.  But I do have some hopes.  I hope we’ll find community that’s not too different from what we’ve found here in Ireland that involves regular hanging out, long talks, and random events.  I hope I’ll care more about people than about stuff.  I hope I’ll remember the examples of hospitality and generosity that I’ve been shown here.  I hope I’ll throw really awesome parties.