A New Hope

I've overcome the depths of melancholy that I had felt over the past month. Living abroad teaches you so much about yourself and how to deal with internal self-created problems. Up until a couple weeks ago, as noted in recent blogs, I was suffering from a deep depression. I've experienced nothing quite like it in my entire life. Homesickness would be the most apt name for it. Yet it's one thing to experience it and another thing altogether to say you understand how it feels. Let it be written that much to my approval, I have conquered the woes I once faced, at least for now. Solving problems like homesickness here are incredibly more challenging than can be adequately explained. Nonetheless, I'll try and impart to you some of the knowledge I've attained. If you're homesick, you face a couple of problems. For starters, there's the language barrier. At times, you can get completely annoyed and frustrated at the inconvenience of doing simple things like asking 'what times is the last bus leaving'? I'm learning Korean yet there are always new phrases such as that one that are of practical use that I've yet to learn. Next if you have a problem, you can't console yourself with your friends like one might do back home. Back home you have a more intimate relationship with friends. If you have a problem you usually approach or deal with it in a different way. If you're feeling blue back at home you can ask a friend to watch a game, TV show, or movie with you to divert your low spirits. Maybe go to the beach, get some food, etc. Here, the few friends that you connect with are usually of similar backgrounds as you but at the same time they're still not quite your old college friends. You don't gel in the same type of way. Just as importantly there's the cultural/societal element involved. Like with home, you don't have the luxury of doing the same things you might otherwise to do solve your despair. In effect, you're forced to deal with your desolation often by yourself. This I'm glad to say is all past history. I've coped with where I am and am now the boundaries of my limitations. And for that I can honestly say I'm a stronger, more patient person. O the places you'll go and the things you'll learn! :) p.s. I wrote this while at home with H1N1 influenza so it may not the most thoroughly well thought out of my blogs