I can smell it. The scents tingling my nostrils. I haven't yet left America, I'm only standing in the international terminal at the Chicago airport. But for all the travelers out there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The scents of different countries, spices, people, melting together in time and space, beckoning memories.
My last year was spent living in the Midwest. A huge culture shock. And while Purdue is a very international school, the students all belong to individual cliques, we live separate lives. Our religions, traditions, cultures, and languages are like walls protecting us, separating us. But my last night at purdue was something else.
A good friend graduated yesterday. But this was unlike any other graduation, this was no small feat. At once homeless living on the streets of Ghana, he is now the proud owner of a masters in linguistics diploma from Purdue university. His diploma sat proud in front of his old school box tv in a living room furnished with some fold-up chairs and a fold up dining table. The walls to his apartment was empty, no decoration, as if he had just moved in. But the place was home, it was filled with his friends, sounds of Ghanian music, smells of Ghanian food and possibly even Ghanian spirits :)
We were there to show appreciation and respect for how far he's come in life.
and not from the constant push from parents who valued education, grandparents with endless words of encouragement, or a family that worked tirelessly to pay for tuition...as is the case with my own life. But from a bottomless source of determination that I can only stand from afar and admire, envy. I sat humbled listening to how he had to carry his table and his chair to school and back each day because there were no locks on the classroom doors.
A God sent reminder of how blessed I am and the perfect start to my trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment