Jet Lag Strong
"To keep your balance, you must keep moving and texting" /Albert Einstein
6/8/20264 min read
I landed in NYC exactly one week ago. It is kind of weird coming back home after three months of traveling. All right, Captain Obvious. Everyone knows that. Coming home can be weird even if it’s been a week. Or even after a long day at work. Or anytime, really. And I think coming to the USA is always a little weird whether you’re visiting or living here.
Not much has really changed, I guess. But I also haven’t seen a lot the past week. I saw some of my friends — they have not changed much. I went to Trader Joe’s — that place is always the same, overcrowded with just about every type of human possible. I took the L train — I kind of think of it as if Trader Joe’s was a train. All sorts of people squeezed together. I walked around the neighborhood and, except for a few graffiti pieces here and there, everything stayed the same.
So I think it’s just a little weird to be back and feel like nothing really has changed. Like, I was on the other side of the world doing all those things, and I feel like I’ve changed and I definitely grew. Maybe it’s a little strange to see how things have stayed calm, stayed the same here. I don’t know if I am worried that maybe I do not fit in here anymore. If anything, I am worried I will go back to being the same person I was before I left.
And I hate to be all like, “I traveled and am now a changed person,” because I still stayed fundamentally the same. But the changes I’ve made, like cutting down on alcohol, quitting vaping, and eating healthier, are things that I want to keep in my life now that I’m back.
Anyways, this is also the worst jet lag of my entire life. I know I have been gone for three months and crossed different time zones (the most recent one being 12 hours ahead of NYC), but nothing could have prepared me for this.
I barely registered what was said to me the past week. I know what I did, where I was, and with whom, but I honestly cannot say what we were talking about. I’m not sure what stories I told each of my friends. I also have been going to bed really early — depending on the day, but to paint you a picture, it was 5 PM on Thursday, 9 PM on Sunday, and all sorts of in-between on the other days.
The other day (not sure what day) I went to my friend’s place. It’s a 30 minute walk. When I was leaving I could not find my AirPods - and I was completely sure I lost them. I’m on my sixth pair by the way. I know I know. Terrible and “why do you keep buying them?” - couldn’t tell you. So anyways, I went home convinced I lost them and the whole time they were on my desk. Did I genuinely hallucinate music for half an hour?
Then, I lost my voice out of nowhere. I am not sure why. I always get a little sick after being on a plane (and the 16-hour flight after a 5-hour flight was no joke), but it’s been a week. Maybe it’s the fact that I have been talking to people a lot, and while traveling I didn’t talk as much. Or I was using my voice in a softer way. Now I’m back, going to loud places where the music plays in the background and I have to almost yell to tell my friend a story about how some entitled weirdo asked me to give him my water bottle after I had just walked underground for a mile while he was comfortable standing outside.
I feel a little chaotic, obviously. I have applied to a few jobs, but I think I am going to take it slow this week. It’s not like I spent all my savings. I would rather wait and find a job I truly like than throw my resume at a bunch of places and take whichever is offered to me first.
All that is to say - it's good to be back!