On A Different Path

I've shared this experience with many of my classmates over the past few years. You have this one month a year where you get to go home, and during this time, you make an effort to see all your family and old friends. There's a certain something that you really want to hold onto, even with friends you never hear from for an entire year. Now the strangest thing about this desire to see these people is that it seems to affirm every time more and more how much you're on different paths.

So many of my friends are getting married, having kids, advancing in their careers. Not everyone of course. It seems like so often when my friends ask that typical question of something along the lines of say "what's the training like there?" I give the same easy answer over and over because I don't really know how to express what it's like. I can tell everyone what my schedule is like repeatedly, and I can talk about the food, or my classmates, but I often wonder if I give off the impression that I don't want to talk about it, or that I'm not passionate about what I'm doing. It just seems impossible to try and sum up a year's worth of training.

I could list all of the forms that I've learned, or the competitions I've done, or some kind of stretching achievements, but most of that would mean little to the average person. How could I explain how much I've learned from dealing with the frustrations of injuries, or how getting through the monotony of each day has made me learn so much about my personal character. How much I've learned about dealing with my training partners. These things that seem so important to me have no physical manifestations that are simple and easy to share.

In so many ways I can't wait to come home but I also imagine it will be a difficult transition.