Last post from India

Wow! How in the world has it come so quickly that today is my last day in India?

I remember starting this blog, unsure if anyone would ever read it or even 100% sure that I was going on the trip! And now, today is my last day in India. Tonight, at 10 pm Indian time I will be boarding a sixteen hour flight to arrive "home."

I never realized how hard it would be to leave. I guess its kind of true that, unfortunately, you never REALLY understand how much you have until you have to leave it. The last day at SECMOL was amazing. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the trees were turning green - it was a normal day at SECMOL. I helped Benoy in the kitchen, cutting and chopping, trying not to think about saying goodbye. At night, during our big going away cermony it hit me (sort of) that I was leaving this place. And it was then that I realized somewhere along the way I had aquired a new home, a new family. Through my tears when hugging Chusket, a SECMOL girl, I realized there is no way I can't NOT return to Ladakh. When our taxis pulled away Tuesday morning from campus I reassured myself "One day I will be back."