Happy Anniversary.

One year ago today I was standing on the sixth deck waving to parents, friends, and families who were there to bid the new Semester at Sea voyagers farewell. I remember it all like it were yesterday and I miss it as though it were the lost love of my life.

This year my summer is practically the opposite of what I was participating in last year at this time.

Today, I received a book entitled, "Innocents Abroad Too" by Michael Pearson who was a professor on the voyage that I went on. It's all about his journeys on Semester at Sea on the different voyages that he went on. I felt it rather ironic that it arrived today, on the anniversary of the day I left.

The past year went by in a blur. I am now a senior in college who will be done in one semester. The close, intimate friendships that I developed last summer are now things of the past that I struggle to maintain. My ship stories have been told too many times and mentioning things that remind me of the trip annoy those around me to no end. My bank account is virtually at the same level as when I came back and the tan that I slaved over last summer is trying to make its appearance yet again to regain the "Black Asian" title that it once held. Instead of hearing the drunken SASer stories I'm stuck being a part of the drunken stories of my friends as we hit the bars on the weekend searching for something real. I search for familiarity in what I experienced last summer with a sip of sangria which doesn't compare to that of the Spanish. I order tiramisu at a quaint Italian restaurant and frown in disappointment. I stand with waves crashing against my feet in the sand of Lake Erie and only want to cry at the thought of a real beach and the numerous seas and oceans that I swam in where the water was clearer than the stuff we asked for in bottles. I'd give anything to grab a barf bag as I run from the union to my room praying that I'll make it to the toilet in time to spew the mountains of potatoes that infested my stomach.

Semester at Sea has become a dream that I continue to fall asleep in hopes to capture a glimpse of what I once felt. I think of the seventh deck and Dia's voice coming on over the speaker in the morning. I miss Achilles and wish that I could just come back from working and find my bed made.

Although I miss it, I try not to dwell on what used to be. I want to remember it and miss it, but I don't want to consume myself in the past. I know that one day I'll be back out in the vast ocean traveling to places that are familiar and foreign, so until then, I'm going to read my blog from last summer to reminisce and love what used to be.

Happy Anniversary SASers and MV Explorer...I miss you all.