Family Reunion

For three summers in a row in high school, I spent a month away at language immersion camps run by the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy to improve my Mandarin. I had never once gotten homesick and found myself quite content with being so independent. Last summer, in 2018, that was my first summer completely at home for a while. It felt bizarre and abnormal for me to be with my parents for the complete two months.

This summer is quite different from either of those two instances. I'm away from home for 8 weeks straight and more independent here than ever. I didn't come here already having someone that I'm close with like the previous times. I really didn't know anybody. I don't have to be in this group at all times and I'm in a single like my third year at camp instead of a double. I'm not sure if it's because of how long I'm here or that I didn't really know anyone well when I got here, but I experienced homesickness for the first time this summer.

Originally, I wasn't very keen on my parents visiting, thinking that I would have to spend every day they are here with them. However, this is not the case. My parents are here for one week and have already booked up their schedules during the daytime, which works very well because I work at my internship until 6 P.M. anyways. When they arrived two days ago, I was really excited to see them again. The best cure for home sickness is being with the people that are your home. I didn't have much time with them on the day they first arrived, but it was enough. I spent an hour with them in their hotel room on Monday before my night class and grabbed some delicious ramen by Charing Cross station afterwards. It was nice to catch up with them, and for the first time, I didn't mind my dad asking the annoying questions he usually does. I was truly happy to answer everything he was asking me. This was the moment where I felt most independent and it was really nice to be able to share a part of my life with them that they would have never understood before. I was happy to give them suggestions on places to go and how to navigate London's public transportation system, even though they are public transportation veterans back home in Philadelphia and I knew it would come easily to them. I couldn't wait for them too experience what my life was like for the past month and I'm so grateful that they are here.

For my birthday, I bought us tickets to see the closing night performance of The Light in the Piazza at the Southbank Centre. We travel to New York City often and almost always see a Broadway musical when we go, so it's nice to keep up this tradition of traveling together and experiencing great musical theatre as a family. I didn't realize how much I needed this visit from them until the days leading up to it and I couldn't be more appreciative of it. As much as I believed I would be perfectly fine on my own like I have been in the past, this week is going to be really nice and calming for me and I kind of wish I had more time with them while they are here. On the bright side, I've the past almost 19 years with them and I have a feeling they aren't going anywhere.