Homecoming

As the MV Explorer sailed out of Nassau, Bahamas, the last thing in my mind was pulling into our disembarkation port of San Diego three and a half months later.  As I sit on my US Airways flight across the country, I realize how much has happened in between those two points in time.  It’s a little daunting to think about it.  It’s still surreal to me that I won’t be returning to the ship tonight (or any night in the near future) and sailing off to a new distant location.  Instead, I’m on the way back to the Bronx, New York, otherwise known as the place I call home.

The last few days on the ship were bittersweet to say the least.  After leaving Hawaii, we were bombarded with a slathering of final exams.  After all of the last minute studying (and not completely bombing the Global Studies test), we all got to spend a couple of days packing, saying goodbye, reminiscing, and thinking.  Thinking about our journey and what was up for us once we landed.  It was a whirlwind of emotion: from the Alumni Ball and signing each other’s maps as mementos to packing all of my international goodies into two bags and giving back my ship ID card.  The time at the end just seemed to fly by so fast by the end; I can still feel the cold of the rain against my skin and the warmth of a steaming bowl of ramen in Tokyo as if it were yesterday.  It seemed like the voyage would never end.  And then it did.

After two very relaxing days in San Diego (including a final dinner with my core group of friends and their families who came to pick them up), I am 32,000 feet in the air getting ready for my epic homecoming from my epic voyage.  In a few hours, I can say what very few can: I have completely circumnavigated the globe.