I can't believe that it has been a year since I returned from Peru. That is a statement that I can hardly believe myself. Has it really been that long? Has it gone that fast? Has it really passed by? Have i lived in 2 homes, been jobless, volunteered for months, found a job, been on a few retreat, bought a camera, made friends, written thousands of emails, posted thousands of pictures? Has that really happened?
It is a little strange to be writing another 'one year later' post. I remember the sentiment I held while writing my lament of a year after CASP. In that post, I missed the community, the people, the heat, the fact that I was a college student being challenged to look at the world through a lens that I didn't know existed. It was an exhilarating experience. Then to look back on that a year later in the blandness of Spokane while working, just didn't cut it.
But Peru was different. Rather than being a life shattering, path changing, I'm never going to be the same type of person ever, it was a time to solidify who I was. It was a period that took so many lessons from that CASP trip and gleaned the ones that really mattered out and helped me to become who I was supposed to be. It showed me how to really be the ideals I held and how to be with the people with whom I held them. I really practiced inter-cultural relations and experienced life abroad without the safety net of other upper middle white college students standing at my side. I grew to thrive in a family that I hold nearly as deep as the one that I'm related to by blood. I grew to find another land that I really knew the history, geography, language and even pop culture of. There were days when I felt separate. There were days when I felt like I was in the middle of things, but more Peru taught me to be at home. It taught me to walk down the streets with a smile on my face and constantly looking for the good and the unique in the mundane. That may have just been a bit of naiveté or even the photographer's eye, but it became part of who I was.
So now a year separated from that experience, I still love the moments of walking down my street and seeing the beauty in the normalcy. I am enthralled by the wrinkles on a bus driver's face in the window. Happy when I hear a song that just doesn't fit the vehicle it is being pumped from. I'm happy to smile at children and to soak in that sea breeze.
This isn't to say that this year has been all roses. I spent some dark days on unemployment. Some lonely nights reading. I've even passed a few days that made me question why I'm answering technical questions about computer games from middle aged women. But, when it comes down to it, Peru solidified who I am outside my comfort zone to the point that I re-entered that area and being in Seattle kicked me around in that zone until I really made it my own.
So, I cannot proceed without thanking those who brought me through the Peruvian and Seattle experiences. Thanks to the friends of old who have stuck by me and the new ones who have built up around. Thanks to The family who has supported me in who I am. Thanks to that wonderful girl I get to date who makes me smile and thanks to a city that I'm happy to call my own.
So, you may be wondering, why this photo? What does a woman holding out a hat have to do with a year in Seattle? For me, it's all about pride in who you are. That is actually the name of the photo, 'Orgullo' or pride in Spanish. This woman, Vincinte de la Cruz, is a member of the Huayanay Artisan Community in Huayanay, Huancavelica, Peru and this photo is especially special to me because her pride in her work on this alpaca hat just shines through her squinted eyes. Each line on her face speaks volumes of the trials she has endured and the years at 13,000 ft above sea level that she has lived. But through that, she is who she is and she was so happy to share it with me. This is how I feel a year later. I don't have the wrinkles to prove it and maybe I dont have an alpaca hat, but I'm a more sure of who I am and I'm proud of that.
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