The Question of a Home

Home. That word brings a picture or a smell of a certain place to the minds of most people. It is where you grew up, learned to walk, learned to ride a bike, learned to drive a car etc. There is a comforting sense of continuum in at all, a stability if you will. With all the benefits and perks of having the background that I have, the lack of the ability to call a certain place home is truly one of the drawbacks.

I grew up a bit all over the place. I learned to walk in Ghana. I learned to ride a bike in Sweden. I learned to drive in Sweden, Mocambique, and most recently Poland. That last one is still a work in progress, mind you =) Thus, there really isn't one place I could call home. One could argue the fact that I have many homes, which, of course, is true, but it is not the same as having one Home. 

In all this confusion, however, there is one place where I always feel 100% at home. That is in the company of one or two, or more, people that have a desire to praise God. Being a Christian myself, that has always been something close to my heart, and I have had the fortune of being able to praise God freely wherever I have been. Lacking a true physical home here on this lovely earth, to be able to experience that feeling of belonging is something quite wonderful. 

In the end, not having a true home would be a fair price to pay for getting to experience all the things one goes through as a TCK, and it is one I would be willing to pay. Happily, as a Christian, I believe that I can get to experience a bit of the feeling of being home, of having some place to belong.  That, in my own humble opinion, is something to be very thankful for, and I truly am.

The Coming of the Cold

I'm there again. On the threshold of the doom and gloom. I have to admit, first and foremost, that autumn is a quite lovely season. There is, however, always that notion in the back of one's head that things are drawing to a close. The beauty of the colourful leaves is shadowed by the knowledge of their imminent fall. The cool evenings are slowly getting colder, and even if they are still decently enjoyable, the instances in which they are increasingly far apart. With the weather as it is, it may be a good thing then, that my focus is being shifted from the weather to other things. School is in full throttle, to say the least. New year, new classes, new teachers, same stress. This year though, I am expecting it, so the stress is more manageable. The management of stress, infact, is a thing that gets increasingly harder as the winter approaches. Cold and slippery roads limit such things as jogging and the like. However, with a brand new gym having been installed at the swimming pool close by, I think some hours at the gym are in order!

Invitational Speech

About a week back I had the honor of addressing all the first year students at the university and invite them to their new semester of studies. A friend of mine recorded the speech on her phone, and shared it with me. I had planned to post this last weekend, but due to the whole internet system being revamped, I didn't have internet for the whole weekend(!). This predicament was somewhat eased by the fact that for Saturday and Sunday I was off to a medieval castle. It was another welcoming gesture for the first years, and couple of my friends and I managed to tag along as well. However, it seems like we all came back with some sort of flu, so you win some you lose some. Anyway, without further ado, here's my little speech:

Note: In difference to most North American school systems, here in Poland, students wear the graduation gowns at the start of the school year as well. That's why they are all dressed like that.