What an absolutely wild ride these past few days have been! Truth be told, at any given moment, I’m completely clueless as to the day and time. Adding to our complete and utter confusion with this sort of homecoming is the fact that Ryan is still in South Korea and won’t join us until this coming weekend. Since we received orders so late, we decided the best choice for would be for me to fly ahead with the kids and cats whilst Ryan cleared Camp Humphreys and effectively ended our time in South Korea. And so, we’re here. We’re back.

A Sort of Homecoming Back in the USA

I’d heard from friends who’ve returned to the US before us that there’s a level of reverse culture shock, and they weren’t lying. Beyond the fog of convoluted time zones and fatigue, there’s a sense of displacement that’s both familiar and unfamiliar all at the same time. South Korea was our home for two years. We grew accustomed to not understanding the bulk of what was spoken on our daily outings. We got used to the anxiety surrounding parking on any given excursion. We knew people would be gracious and friendly.

Being back in the USA is simultaneously a (literal) breath of fresh air and a complete mind-bender. All of sudden, there’s parking everywhere – and the spaces are enormous. I’m now the douchebag who backs into spots and parallel parks for fun. There are so many options at the grocery store. The skies are bluer than blue, and when they’re not, you know it’s just cloudy. I don’t have to look each way 902384 times when running to ensure I don’t get hit.

A Different Sort of Reintegration

We’ve grown familiar with the varying stages of reintegration that come with military life, but it’s always had to do with our service member returning home. What about all of us? What about when we pick up our entire lives and move around the world…only to know we’re continuing that journey to our new home in a few weeks? It’s wild. It’s fast-paced. It’s frenetic. It’s honestly, in and of itself, not normal. Take this for example:

• I flew from Incheon solo with three kids and two cats on Thursday evening in Korea, and I landed Thursday night at JFK
• We trekked to a rental car late at night, made our way to Danbury, CT, and finally fell asleep at 2 AM EST
• We left Connecticut the next morning and drove the rental car to Manchester, NH, where we met my mom at a car dealer
• I bought a car within 10 hours of landing in the US
• We returned the rental car to Manchester airport, then returned to the dealer and picked up my new car
• I drove the new car behind my mom the 2+ hours to their house in the White Mountains

Is this normal? No. Is it weirdly normal to us? Yes. I don’t say any of this for pats on the back or kudos, but to remind myself when the going gets tough that we do hard sh*t. This sort of homecoming is just a blip in the grand scheme of things, and the journey is just beginning for us on our way to our new home.

For now though? We soak it up. We enjoy. We get over jetlag, and we enjoy the familiarity of the pseudo-unfamiliar to us. For better or worse, we’re glad to be home!