The Alternate Reality

It’s almost like cheating.

It’s almost like traveling through alternate realities.

Despite the few dozen plane trips I’ve taken in the past year and a half, getting on a plane and arriving in a different culture, different part of the world still seems a little too easy.

Being back in Canada was surprisingly very normal. Maybe much of the ease came from the fact that I was occupied nearly all the time; I didn’t have the chance to think about how weird it was. Being back made me feel as if I was denying a small piece of who I was. I was immediately immersed into a world of snow, cold, English, paved roads, central heating, Christmas shopping in malls, new cars, big coats and mittens, friends I hadn’t seen for months, celebrity gossip, turkey dinners, and Starbucks.

It was fantastic to return to (most of) those items, but a little piece of me felt like I was ignoring the world I had just left. A world of palm trees, Spanish speakers, dirt roads, stray dogs mating in the streets, random livestock, tortillas and beans, no climate control (though rarely needed), new friends, Christmas celebrations involving fireworks, kids begging on the street, and shopping in colourful markets filled with smiling faces.

I will only ever be in one place – one reality – at a time. The gift, however, is to be able to take an awareness of those other places and worlds with you wherever you are. As tough as it is to enter one completely separate world, remembering the place you just were gives you a perspective on your current location unlike any other.