Johnny on being back

Johnnyat God's Window, Mpumalanga, South Africa

It’s been a little over a month since we’ve all gotten home. I’ve been waiting to write this blog because the first week or two consists of constant changes in your everyday routine. In Cape Town, I was walking from house to house as if my life depended on it. You could bet every single day in the early afternoon that I would be walking past the Fat Cactus over the bridge and down to the other student house. Wait about 2-3 hours and sure enough there I would be again walking straight back past that restaurant and through the commons to the place I called home for 3 ½ months. I can only imagine those residents that lived in apartments along Durban road must’ve loved seeing me constantly walking back and forth with frequent regularity. There were three facts of life for those residents every morning: the sun will rise, the sun will set, and Johnny Kerins will stroll past our apartment complex at least 3-4 times a day. Now, if I am getting asked to do chores or drive a sibling somewhere, I don’t have that walk of solitude that: 1. could get me out of those situations and B. allowed me to truly be alone.

Secondly, the same old jokes that I used to laugh tirelessly at before I embarked for South Africa seem to be less and less funny now. When a couple friends and I are joking around and I say something like “cool drinks” or “is it?” those chuckles that I could 100% count on in Cape Town now go right over people’s heads quicker than I could’ve imagined. Telling stories that only those of us on the trip could connect to and truly understand has also been a struggle. I guess that kind of preserves the mystery that was our trip.

All jokes aside though, we are back in our real lives. Not to say that Cape Town didn’t count as “real life” but this is where we are now. These are our lives for the time being. Instead of talking about how bad home is compared to Rondesbosch and Mowbray, I think it is definitely more productive to take what we learned abroad and apply it to our lives here. Although there may not be as much to do here, a good attitude can really make this summer one to remember.