The Way Things Change...or Not

I am back in Iowa City, back in classes. It is wonderful, in a way, to be back in a familiar environment. But I'm starting to feel as though I should be more different than it seems I am. I slipped painlessly back into my life here and at home in Chicago. There were some twinges, but nothing of any magnitude. There was some sense of being out of place, of being somewhere physically but not mentally, but not as much as I thought there might be. I almost feel as though I wasn't changed enough by Ghana. I'm still the same person I was before I left, albeit with more experience, more perspective. But this trip to Africa (Oh, romantic notion!) was not the catalyst of change that seems so common in stories like this. I think that is what I am having the most difficulty with--how ordinary everything seems, how normal. I feel like everything about me should be different. But it's not. I'm the same person I was when I left. Or at least a good facsimile of me. That is what feels most unreal about the whole experience to me. I was ready for change. I wasn't ready to stay the same.