When I came back from 8 years in Asia in 2009 across the Pacific Ocean it felt like a shipwreck.
Like we’d emotionally barely survived the past few traumatic months where to me, as a teenager, my whole world seemingly fell apart on my 17th Birthday.
I’ve come a long way in processing that time.
My birthday doesn’t trigger me, I can talk about the situation frankly. I don’t shy away from community anymore. But this summer someone died over there far across the pacific. Someone I knew.
And it all came rushing back.
I guess there were still pieces of that story unresolved.
Some lost dreams never fully grieved.
Some dead friendships sacrificed to protect my family never mended.
11 years later I had this thought... Why don’t I try to bridge this gap? Could I build a bridge across an ocean?
Maybe they hate me, maybe they don’t want to talk to me, but maybe, just maybe our mutual casualty of the circumstances of the adults in our lives will connect us as grown ups. Maybe 11 years is time enough to heal.
I was so amazed to be right.
Time heals a lot of things.
But some things really need to be processed fully. They need to be grieved and not stuck in a box.
Those 17 years of overseas life feel like a distant dream a different world. But social media has this beautiful way of connecting the globe.
Not letting you forget.
But instead letting you discover who those people now are. Grieving the loss of what was and what was missed but also exploring the new possibilities and personhood of those that you left behind.
Goodness this has been an emotional but beautiful summer!
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