I got to thinking this week, living abroad is very much like being in your own version of The Wizard of Oz. You have been picked up in a whirlwind storm and drop kicked smack dab in the middle of Munchkinland where nothing and no one makes sense.
You begin to trot down your Yellow Brick Road in search of whatever, but along the way you are consistently blinded by the overwhelming color and vivacity that you had no idea had been missing your whole life. You begin to meet friends and feel a little at home, and they are your family and shelter from the Wicked Witches that come across your path. Nothing is easy, but at least you have them and your fabulous shoes to help you through it all.
Finally, you find your way home, the place you thought you wanted more than anything all along. Except its suddenly not quite what you want. Your life has been turned upside down and inside out and you assumed that something about home would have changed too, but nothing has, there is an unsettling stillness that is now too comfortable to live with. After you have lived in a constant world of change and color, how do you go back to the stillness of black and white? How do you find a middle ground where you can belong?
*thanks Vogue and weheartit for the photos*
Is there a way to live on the rainbow that bridges Kansas and Oz?
4 comments:
Good post. I'd say that as far as living on the rainbow goes, that must be kind of where my life is -- after you stay abroad, year after year, the colors fade and it starts to seem more like home. You start to run into the same problems you faced before, the same ups and downs, just a different place. I'd agree that the first year is definitely technicolor though -- just wait till your eyes start adjusting :)
I truly think that allowing yourself to dream up all sorts of fantastical things is one of the ways to live in the in-between. :)
I can not relate to living abroad, but this is how I felt when I left my comfortable home with my loving and safe family to go off on an adventure called college. This shy girl was thrust into a strange environment living with seven other girls. I came out the other side with a purpose and a change in mindset. I went from shy to outgoing just by leaving home for awhile. The funny thing is, I never moved back home and my college town has been my home now for over 25 years. I learned invaluable lessons from those college years away from home.
love the pictures in this post
and very inspiring words may i add
http://moncheri2311.blogspot.com/
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