Reboot and Underway

Alright, so I neglected this blog a bit when I went from Africa into Europe. I completely abandoned it when I returned to America, and that's probably the biggest shame of all. Because I've basically finished a story without an ending, and the thing I've realized being home is that this story probably doesn't have any kind of ending. The narrative arc tends to wind around on itself, and I don't know if it will ever come back to connect with the person I was when I left for Africa nearly three years ago now. I don't know if anyone will be interested, so I'll kind of be keeping this blog for myself now and for anyone else who is interested in how I've readjusted and recovered, with particular insight into how I've changed in my time away, how America has changed, and every once in a while, I'll try to recount a crazy story or two that I might have missed in my time without internet.

But for right now, a short update. I've been home since August 24th. I'm currently living at home (slowly losing the battle every day not to jump off the roof), auditing a couple classes at my alma mater, Wabash College. I'm applying for graduate school, limiting my choices to New York and London, because the path I've found for myself involves international human rights advocacy, and, let's face it, all the organizations I would want to work with (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Global Witness, etc.) are all based out of these two cities. So I'm hoping I'll be able to intern/volunteer at one of these organizations while I'm studying. I'm applying for a master's program in human rights, and I hope to focus on human rights, international advocacy, corruption, gender, and post-conflict societies. It's a little broad at the moment, but that's the issue you face when you have too many interests. Really it's a human rights program, and within that I hope to focus primarily on corruption and post-conflict issues. But if there's one thing I've learned through my travels and the readings I've done since, it's that everything is tied up in everything else, so that liberal arts education really pays off when you start looking to connect the dots.

I'm also currently applying for a few jobs and looking to get away from home by the new year. I'm thinking of going international now, for all of several reasons that I may list in this blog at a later point. In the most concise terms, I've found it very difficult to be in America again after being away for so long. Plus, I want to travel more. I don't think anyone could have pegged me for wanderlust when I was a kid (I remember very definable boundaries that we never crossed, afraid that if we got too far from home we wouldn't be able to find our way back), but I've since been infected by the need to keep exploring and pushing my comfort zone, and I intend to follow that urge.

So that's all for now. Watch this space for updates from America and hopefully some insightful writing. It's one of the many things I'll be doing to keep some modicum of sanity while I'm living in a place I left so long ago.