As I prepare to leave, the first question I seem to face is where? Where am I going? Where is Turkmenistan? Giving you a geographical location, however, does not sufficiently answer that question and in all honesty I don’t have an answer that will suffice. Instead, more questions just continue to pile up. What will my host family be like? What doors of opportunity will open for me, or shut in my face? What will I be able to share about my culture, if anything? What will I learn? What will I eat?… No seriously, what will I eat?
But in just a few short days I will be facing a different question: Sen nireden? Where are you from? I recognize that where I am from has, up until this point, shaped the person I have become. I know that the simple answer is that I am from California. But the honest answer is that I come from a house bursting with laughter, friendships filled with inspiration and a passion that I can barely contain.
Regardless of where I end up, I am entering this adventure with no expectations. That’s right, no expectations. My reasoning is as follows: with no expectations you protect yourself from disappointment, but more importantly you allow yourself the opportunity to experience things with a rare appreciative eye. Remove the urge to compare and judge that experience to the reality you previously knew, and instead stand in that moment with gratitude for the chance to be part of whatever lies ahead.
So, where am I from? Where am I going and what will it take to get there? Who, what, where, when, how? The questions will continue to mount and I will slowly seek and find answers, but for now I have peace.
