Well I’ve been home for almost a month now. Okay, three and a half weeks. But it’s crazy. I’m still in the process of figuring out what to do with the next few years of my life. The current plan is this: about two more years at BYU, graduate with a bachelor’s in English and minors in Scandinavian Studies and Editing. I think after that, I want to get a Master’s in Comparative Literature. We’ll see.
And what has happened since I’ve been home? I’ve decided I don’t have time to get a job before I head back to BYU at the end of June, so I’m very available for service projects and odd jobs and things like that. I went to the bishop’s storehouse once (and had a blast!). I’ve been going to institute and YSA activities and to the temple. I’ve also been on my first couple of dates–quite an accomplishment for an awkward returned missionary, if I do say so myself.
And, of course, I’ve been reading up a storm. 🙂 I’ve read some Shojo Manga (Ouran High School Host Club and Lizard Prince), a guilty pleasure, as well as the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows and Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. One of my favorite things to do is just walk through the library and browse the shelves and wait for a book to jump out and grab me. That’s how I found Guernsey. It was on the bestseller shelves and the title intrigued me. It’s about a writer in London who receives a letter from a pig farmer out on Guernsey in the English Channel, who has an old book that used to belong to her and wants to know if she knows anything else by the same author. She starts corresponding with him and other residents of the island, people who also belong to this “literary society,” a group formed during World War II. She becomes enchanted with them and their stories, ultimately goes to visit them, and falls in love with the island itself. It’s a wonderful story, and one fun thing about it is that it consists entirely of letters between the different characters in the story. I loved it. Howl’s was also fun, but I think I read it too fast, and there’s a lot of information, especially at the end. I got a little confused. I liked it, though, so I don’t mind reading it again. I tried reading Twilight for the first time ever but I couldn’t get through it, nor could I finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Twilight was interesting and sucked me in, but I found it really disturbing at the same time. Zombies was funny at first, but I got bored with it.
What else? I went up to Arcata with my dad last week, because he had a meeting at Humboldt State University. After his meeting we went up to Redwoods National Forest and went for a hike. That was really nice. I had missed redwood trees so much in Sweden! There is just a feel and a smell to the redwood forests here in California that you can’t get anywhere else. It felt so good to be home.
It really does feel good to be home. I miss many things about Sweden, namely food and people and public transportation :p , but America is my home. We had the elders over for dinner on Sunday, and they asked what I missed about my mission. I said those things–that I missed the people and the food and things like that–and one of the elders asked me if I miss missionary work. I couldn’t really give him a clear answer. I loved my mission; I loved being a missionary and teaching people these truths that are so precious to me, but at the same time, I don’t miss being a missionary. I’m still me. I’m still the same person. I think the things I loved most about being a missionary have come home with me. I just have a new mission now. I will always serve Heavenly Father, but in different ways, and I was happy and excited to move on to new adventures. I don’t know if that makes any sense to anyone else. Thoughts?
People keep asking me how my adjustment back to “normal” life is going. I tell them I’m still “processing.” Like, I’m going through these experiences and memories in my mind and putting them in their proper place, as I continue to live my life and create new experiences and memories. I feel like a lot of these changes have come to me rather naturally since I’ve returned home, but somewhere in the back of my mind there’s a little Haley doing filing work to get all of those papers and things organized. I’m not too worried. Little Haley will catch up. 🙂
i think alot of missionaries who are fresh off the mission get frustrated with the “lack of work” to be done, so i am glad that you feel he way you do! There are always ways to serve Heavenly Father, no matter where we are!
I am proud of you, my roommate-living-in-another-state!