Family Visit!

At the end of March, my mom, dad and little brother came to Peru to spend a week with me. We spent half of the week taking in the urban culture of Lima and the other half enjoying the natural beauties of Cusco, including of course, a day in one of the 7 wonders of the world, Machu Picchu. Having my family with me in Peru was such a wild experience. Of course I was thrilled to be reunited with them; it was amazing to be able to hold my mommy's hand, give my daddy huge hugs all the time like I always used to, and play cards and sing along to old Whitney Houston hits with my little brother.. I didn't realize just how much I missed those little things! Waking up that first morning to my mom and dad climbing into my bed and telling me how happy they were to be with me again put the biggest smile on my face. We spent so much time reminiscing on old family memories, laughing together about new ones being made and making plans for the future, when we would all be reunited again, as a complete family. For the first time in 8 months I felt fully complete. I felt at home.

Although it was amazing having my family with me, it was rather strange at times. The way I like to think of it is that I have two separate lives- my life back home and my life here. In each of my two lives I am surrounded by different families, different friends, different places, different cultures. I have different schedules and different priorities. Having my family here felt like a weird combination of these two lives. It was almost like I didn't know who to be. Was I supposed to be the girl I am at home, the girl that my parents remember me as? Their little girl? Or was I supposed to show them the new me? The mature, independent girl who had been living without them for the past 8 months? It was a bit of a struggle at times, trying to mix these two versions of myself. As happy as I was to be with my parents again, I couldn't help but get annoyed when they would parent me! They almost served as a reminder that pretty soon this dream of a year will end, and I'll be forced to go back to reality. I'll go back to high school, back into the college search, back into the same old daily routine. I'm not going to lie; it freaked me out a little. Towards the end of their visit I broke down a little bit. I was having too many mixed feelings! Within hours, I switched from saying "Mommy, can I just come home with you guys? I don't want to be apart from you guys again" to "I love you guys, but I never want to go home! I'm too happy here!" It's a strange feeling, seeing your two worlds collide like that. It reminds you just how much you love each of them, but just how different they truly are.

My family means the world to me, and being able to share this part of my life with them was amazing. I love that now I can tell them stories about my friends, and they know who I'm talking about. I love that I can tell them where I spent the day hanging out and they know where that is. I love that they've experienced some of the amazing things that I've experienced, and I love that I was the one who gave them that opportunity. My family has given me so much throughout the past 17 years, and I am so happy that I could finally give something back.