Home is everywhere and nowhere

"Reverse culture shock" is not a myth. Returning to one's native culture and environment after an extended stay on the outside does produce initial feelings of disorientation. Things that were once familiar and comfortable can seem awkward and alien.

Such was the case with me when I came home this past week after over four months in Chile. Seeing my family was absolutely fantastic, but the first few days have been strange ones. Previously simple and mundane tasks -- driving, having to carry an umbrella, even the ease of communicating in English -- are now all remarkable in their own way. I can only imagine that my first few days back in Antofagasta next week will be similarly odd.

But I feel like I have been doing this shuttling between cultures for a few years now. When it comes down to it, I'm still just a small-town boy from rural, homogenous Missouri. Before college, I had never attended any school other than the public one in Scott City, where I have a vast family network condensed into a town of a little more than 4,000 people (for example, you can see my older sister's house from my mother's front porch).

However, in recent years I have been able to parlay hard work, an understanding family and good fortune into experiences that are about as far from Scott City as one can imagine, both physically (Chile, Spain, Egypt) and metaphysically (Washington University in St. Louis). Whether it was running with the bulls in Spain, climbing the pyramids in Egypt, or sharing an apartment with a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew in St. Louis, I have often wondered aloud about how I have gotten so far from home.

Each of these moves has inevitably forced me to adjust to a different culture. Washington University, just a two-hour drive up Interstate 55, facilitated the first and most dramatic adjustment I had to undergo. In a sense, I underwent culture shock when I left small, comfortable Scott City for the relatively cosmopolitan surroundings of WU and St. Louis.

The personal changes that these moves have brought about in me have been overwhelmingly positive. But no matter where I go, part of me will always remain the same small-town boy. I never felt fully at home among my wealthy classmates at WU, just as I will always maintain outsider status in Chile. Similarly, Scott City is not the fit it once was.

Thus, I feel at home both everywhere and nowhere. This obviously has its pros and cons. Traveling has given me a heightened sense of morality, it has forced me to constantly reexamine assumptions, stereotypes and even prejudices that I may have once held, which I think has helped me grow as a person. I think living outside of the States for a time is good for Americans; it makes one appreciate more exactly how and why our country is so great and where we need to improve.