One of the strangest things about coming back home is the fact that nothing's changed. This is all the more true in Long Island, where the big change since my last trip back is that they've finally completed the parking lot behind arguably one of the best delis around. Now granted, the last time I was back was only April -- 3 months ago. But I can come back to India after being gone just two weeks, and entire buildings get constructed in my absence! The varying rates of change (or lack thereof) is really mind-blowing.
Getting ready for Meg's wedding this weekend, I sit at the nail salon that I've gone to since high school... looking around, I feel like I'm in a weird twilight zone where this literally could've still been high school. Change the fashions and hair styles a bit, but essentially it's all the same. General Hospital blasting on the tv... Jax, Sonny, Jason -- all the same characters since the last time I saw the show -- literally 13 years ago!!
Technology makes it easy to traverse the globe in a day, but my mind is still catching up. Funny how it takes a while to re-make sense of the culture you grew up in and still compare everything else to. I find myself ordering cafe lattes at Starbucks at a speed painfully slow to the cashier and all those around me. The dichotomy of cultures is strange, yes. After living in India, it becomes easy to be critical of complacent conversations all around me (although perhaps not fair to extrapolate conversations at the nail salon to American zeitgeist in general), as well as annoyed by all the mass consumerism that just feels over-the-top.
But in the end, it's home. It will always be home. And I'm glad to be here.
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