“Live in the present” they say but for some reason, I can’t stop thinking about the life I’ve been living for the past eighteen years.
October 27th was Diwali and in preparation of it, my host family and I set up lights and lamps all around the house. Automatically, my mind associated that with the familiarity and comfort that came with Christmas, which made me reach a whole other level of homesick that I didn’t think I’d ever reach.
I mean look at me, could I have been any happier?
Now, I could sit here and complain about how much being homesick sucks but I have to admit, it has helped me realize a few things:
1) I miss Puerto Rican food more than I could’ve ever imagined.
2) I’m literally in a different country across the world.. It hasn’t fully sank in yet and I don’t think it ever will?
3) I took so many things for granted back home.
Believe it or not, realization #3 hit me the hardest. Never did I EVER think that I’d be admitting to taking things for granted. From the small things like the smell of arroz con bistec being cooked for dinner to the more important things in life like my parents.
Being a person that is always preaching about appreciation but then later realizing that I could’ve done so much more to show all of my appreciation back home, was a big shift in my mindset and how I plan on being when I go back home. Yeah, props for me for realizing this but that doesn’t mean anything will change. Only time will tell and all I can hope is that I remember how I’m feeling in this instant and work harder to never take things for granted no matter how small or big they may be.
