The Debrief

The Debrief:

I began the emotional process of leaving Hungary on May 3rd. That might seem a little extravagant, more than a month before my physical departure, but that’s when the seniors were leaving school. So it just seemed like a fitting time to begin thinking about my own inevitable farewell. But now that it's June, it's a reality. One week from today, it's airport day. Budapest. Brussels. Chicago. Fond du Lac. Imagine that.

I live life and then I learn from it. I’m a nurturer, I like to facilitate the ability of myself and others to grow and expand, to think and become. I like to reach conclusions and answers and successes. I like truths. I like to understand. I have a tendency to build sentences that start with "I" because I like to showcase my understanding of the world around me and my place within it.

So it goes.

I came of age in a school of thought that seems to say that life is a string of experiences, that living and learning from the challenges is the way to grow. Giving people the opportunity to step into a new realm of comfort, or even well-beyond, and then the forum to share the lessons with others was healthy, if not a completeness of answer.

This time around, the "best choice for me" was a ten-month stay in Hungary, rather than ten-minutes on the high-wires of a ropes course. (By my calculations, that means the experience was approximately 43,200 times more powerful, even if not always as adrenalized.) Unfortunately, though, my facilitator is biased in his assessment of the world and my performance in it.

So it goes.

But he’s presented a multi-media, multi-sensory, multi-learning-style plan for debriefing the experience. Celebrating the successes. Reflecting and learning from the process. Extrapolating to other areas. Sharing stories and lessons. Building a sense of togetherness with my community. Saying goodbye and moving on.

You will be involved in part.

Sharing some "best of" lists.
Sharing the on-going collage-making process.
Sharing personal blog analysis.

And others are more personal, or more rooted in this place.

Showing off my final proficiency in living in this foreign land (Rachel and Margaret).
Saying goodbye to the disco.
Saying goodbye to the teachers.
Saying goodbye to the football boys.
Saying goodbye to the good Americans.
Packing, giving away, throwing away.
Saying goodbye to Eotvos Jozsef Kozepiskola.
Saying goodbye to Eva.
Saying viszlat to Hungary.