Scheduled to head back home in March 2020, for obvious reasons I didn’t get to take that trip. After 6 years, I made the trip back to the States to visit friends and family. That feeling of a mixture of familiarity and, contrastingly, feeling like an outsider at the same time is a strange dichotomy I forgot about and was instantly greeted as the wheels hit the runway. Living overseas obviously changes you, but in ways that I’m not sure I ever anticipated. It’s like watching a movie you’ve seen before. You’re not a part of it, but it’s all so familiar…. Until those things pop up that you’ve not experienced since you left. The sudden overwhelming sense of comprehension of everyone’s small talk, social cues, and nuance…. It’s a lot. But on the other side of that coin, not knowing how to carry yourself because of the sensory overload. Shifts in social interactions, world views, etc…It’s a mental obstacle course.
That all being said, it was incredible seeing friends and family and catching up with so many amazing people, seeing the old stomping grounds, and being absolutely shocked at the development Atlanta has gone through in the last decade. It’s astounding. I lost count of how many times I didn’t recognize places that were once intimately familiar and frequented on a nearly daily basis. I’m not sure how i feel about it, but progress is progress and it’s here regardless of how I feel. Anyways, enough waxing on poetically about all that shenanigans. I can already hear the “oh brother, shut up and show us your photos” and the see the eye rolls. So it goes. Anyways, on to the photos!
Atlanta
Augusta
