Within the context of reflecting on how I have changed about half way(ish) into the semester, I found it to be an extremely interesting experience in having my parents stay for the weekend. I have become a strong believer, maybe since I’m less than fond of the place I grew up in, that “home” is found deeper in people rather than places. However, interestingly enough, amongst the emotional turmoil of assimilating into college, I have developed a strong physical attachment to my dorm and to the American campus in general. I have also noticed, by stepping away for a couple days, how intertwined my life has become with my friends and those I am living with.
It was therefore a new experience to stay with my family, or “home” in my new “home” of D.C., yet not on campus. This was the first time that I experienced the talked about “clash” between the first eighteen years of my life and the life that I have created outside of Wayne, New Jersey. I found it challenging to explain the life I have been living for the last 1.5 months to my parents because the two seem unable to mesh together in having them fully understand my American world and having me understand what life is like in a town that I see as my past.
I know this abnormal limbo between these lives will eventually even out once I reestablish my existence back in my hometown. However, I feel it will be interesting to form my social role that is different than the one I held while being in the New Jersey Public School System. In some ways, I relate to the fishbowl that we use as a debate mechanism in this class. While I am in college I’m inside the fishbowl, but when I hear about my hometown, I feel I am outside of the fishbowl and am looking in, just waiting for my time to exist within it again. I know these feelings will change and evolve, but I hope I can keep listening, speaking, and reflecting with meaning in my life of a fishbowl and within the fishbowl of World Politics.
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