Reunion

“the secret that our poets and philosophers have been trying to tell us for centuries, is that our longing is the great gateway to belonging.”

― Susan Cain, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

The act of coming together again with loved ones often reminds us just how much we have changed. How far we have come between when we last met and where we stand at this very moment in time. From the experiences which have tested, and challenged us to the very cells within our body which have regenerated anew.

Through Fires, Floods, and a COVID-19 Pandemic, I managed to successfully complete a PhD. Trapped within the international boarders of a foreign country, away from friends and family this was no easy task. For to go home these last few years meant to put the fate of my continued higher education at the mercy of international boarder restrictions, sacrificing the very possibility of not being able to come back to finish what had been started.

Officially graduated

I frequently pondered the possibility of booking that one way ticket home. The long arduous flight with barely enough legroom to sufficiently sleep (at least the food wasn't terrible). Nonetheless, I decided to stay. Surrounded by my little community of friends and colleagues all who had made a similar sacrifice, I felt much less alone. We supported each other throughout those weird times to be a human on planet earth. Making dinners, playing games, taking trips to get "essential exercise". All in all, I have to say the experience was not entirely all that bad at all. In fact, I even look back on those years with fond appreciation.

Still, 2022 marked the year for reunion. An opportunity to finally reunite with my loved ones. To share space that needn't be filled with conversation as a zoom or phone call might assume. To share space that did not involve the obligatory sense of feeling like I needed to give an update on my last weeks happenings. To just share space, and experiences with or without communication in the same place in the same time zone. It is priceless really.

Drinking Mai Tais with my fam.

And now for some photos: