The End...

... for now.

Ok, ok, my mom keeps telling me I need to tell people I'm home.  So....

I'm home.

And by that I mean,

I'M HOOOOOOOOOOME!  :D

I'm enjoying the variable temperatures of a Midwest summer.  No sweating in the sun today!  And the company of friends and family.  And the hot showers.  And the mold-free clothes.  And the food!

Panama has become a very special place to me over the last few years.  And as much as it was sad to leave, I'm ready for the next chapter.  I loved it and hated it.  I learned a lot from it's people and landscapes and creepy crawlies.  I laughed a lot and cried a lot.  I failed.  Often.  I also succeeded.  I celebrated.

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer, you are always meeting new people and saying goodbye to old ones.  There is a constant flow of awesome individuals and close friends that come and then inevitably go.  Like it or not, you get a lot of practice at goodbyes and after a while they get less sad, believe it or not.  :)

"We think often about these lively and indelible friendships, and what, if anything, we ever did to deserve them; the luck of getting to find out together who we really were in a strange land, among strange people who asked only that we express a joyful and common humanity."

-Peter Leo RPCV Kenya 1969

Peace out, Panama!  It's been real.