“No matter how long you keep a stick in water, it will never become a fish…”

I’ve sufficiently passed the half-way point now. Eleven more months. I recently took a vacation with my family. We took a cruise through part of the Mediterranean, visiting Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, and Greece with significant layovers in Morocco, which have afforded me the opportunity to write this blog.
I hadn’t left Ghana for fourteen months, and while I wasn’t going home, I was definitely entering a culture much more akin to my own. It was shocking—pleasantly shocking, I guess. I took the longest steam hot showers after I walked around in the bitter cold all day bundles in my coat, scarf, and occasionally gloves. I ate myself sick everyday on fresh vegetables, apples, grapes, cheese, olives, pizza, dark meat, light meat, fish, ice cream, cookies, cake, coffee, you name it. I wore make-up and fixed my hair every morning, and they remained un-phased all day in my new climate. I spoke in English all of the time (or, at least, on the boat) and with an abandon, fostered by the knowledge that I was being fully understood. I ate with my right hand and my left hand. I didn’t greet everyone I passed. I went to the movies.
It was shocking, but, I think, more shocking was how quickly the shock wore off—how quickly I nestled into my comfort zone and thrived there. I feel like I’ve changed so much in the past year. My perspective on many things (development, international relations, foreign aid, global responsibilities, life generalities…) has been radically changed and re-changed. Many of my ways of changed, but most of my ways have stayed just the same. I still love corny movies, pedicures, getting my hair cut, shopping, and new toothbrushes, among other things. I still dislike tours, souvenir stores, and bargaining, also, among other things. I still feel at home with my family.
I’m still me.
Except for one thing. For those of you who don’t know…I’ve now been alive for 24 YEARS. : )

I wish you all cheerful holidays and inspiring new years. And all of my love.

My 10 new year resolutions…
1. Stop hating hand-washing jeans
2. Stop saving all of the hard clothes to wash for the very end (i.e. the jeans)
3. Find away to get less dusty in the dry season
4. Stop wiping my dirty hands on my clean clothes—bad, bad habit
5. Floss more—gross, right?
6. Take the GREs
7. Apply to grad school…and decide if I want to go…
8. Sew better
9. Start getting my ideas for a non-profit off the ground
10. Never forget I’m not here to prove anything to anyone—not even myself—and, by “here,” I don’t mean Ghana

Number 1 new year resolution for next year…
1. Spend 100x more time with my family and friends in the U.S….I’ve never stopped missing you. You still make my life.