Feeling "home sick"

I love Facebook. It's addictive. I log onto Facebook several times a day. I also love FB because it has reconnected me with friends that I thought I would never have contact with again. Friends that shared an experience with me that makes our friendship unique from any other. The friends I spent 2 years with in New Delhi, India. I remember when my dad first told me we were moving to India. I thought my world had just ended. All I could think about was what I would be missing; no driver's license, no prom, no graduating with my friends. I was so angry. When we first arrived in Delhi, it was culture shock beyond belief. The poverty, the heat, the smells. It was unlike anything I'd imagine. I'd convinced myself that I wasn't going to enjoy my time in India. I was determined not to like it. Why should I? I was forced to move and miss out on my junior and senior year of high school with my friends! I'm not going to make any friends while I'm in India. I'm not going to have anything in common with these people.

It was a shaky start. My first day at school, I felt like an outsider. My first thought was "where are the black people?" I mean seriously, where are they? How was I going to make friends with people I have nothing in common with? The kids I met had spent most of their life overseas. They were used to it. I was a newbie. This was my first time. We lived overseas when my dad was in the Air Force but I was a toddler. I don't even remember it so that doesn't count. The first month or so completely sucked. My hair was in a constant frizz thanks to the Delhi heat. Our townhouse on the compound wasn't ready so we were living in a house in town. So I had to take the bus to school - not fun - and kinda scary. When we finally moved onto the compound, things started getting better.

I started actually talking to the kids at school. I stopped judging them like I was sure they were judging me. I opened myself up little by little and guess what happened? I became friends with some great people. And my final years in high school wasn't the disaster that I thought it was going to be. I was more active in school in Delhi than I ever was in the States. I played volleyball, I was in the drama club (Stage crew baby!). I travelled to places I would never have had the opportunity to visit if we hadn't moved to India. I mean, who goes to Bangkok for Spring Break? Not anyone in Dale City, VA! My senior trip was to a beach resort in Thailand. Wow! When I realized the opportunities that living in Delhi gave me, I opened up to the experience more and more.

I remember our last night in Delhi. My parents' friends had a going away party for us. It was a lot of fun. I remember as it got closer to the time for us to leave, I started feeling sad. I hadn't expected to feel sadness. I thought I would feel excitement. I was headed back to the States to start my first year in college. Why am I sad? But I was. In the taxi, as we got closer to the airport, I started crying. My time in Delhi had come to an end. The friends I met and left behind I may never see or hear from again. When we first left the States to head to India, I didn't shed a tear. It was strange that the thought of never seeing my Delhi friends and never seeing Delhi again could make me so sad. But it did.

Thanks to the Internet and FB, I'm back with my Delhi friends again. So much time has passed and yet it feels like it hasn't. We've all grown up, gotten married, had kids. But when I chat with them I still feel like we're back at AES, hanging out at ACSA or the SU, chillin and being kids. I've always said that college was the best time of my life. But I honestly think it was the 2 years I spent in New Delhi that was the best time in my life. Or at least one of the best. That experience makes my friendships completely unique from any other friendship that I have. We share something that no one can understand unless they've been there. No one will understand what a rickshaw is, or why you don't want to get the Delhi belly. Or that it's normal to be taking a shower and see a gecko scurry across the the bathroom wall. This experience uniquely binds us.

And because of this, I'm feeling home sick. I never thought of Delhi and the compound as home, but for 2 years it was. And the friends I made were and are my family. I hope to someday be able to go back and visit. And I hope to be able to see my Delhi buddies soon. Chatting on Facebook is all well and good, but it's nothing like seeing them live and in person.