Snow Globe.

I knew before I signed up for this thing, that life would keep turning for everyone else while I went gallivanting off into the unknown. I knew that lives would be lived and stories written while I was here avoiding the real world. I knew that there were things I could/should be doing and people who would miss me if I left. I knew this stuff. I did. But I did it anyway. I moved to the other side of the world and removed myself from all of those things.

There are so few moments during this adventure where I am reminded that a pause button was not pressed the second I jumped on that first plane. That the world continues turning for everyone else, too, even though I'm not there. I am surprised by the revelation every time. Usually I can convince myself that things will be just exactly as I left them 10 months ago. People will be there, working the same jobs, telling the same stories, laughing at the same things. I will be different, but I'll be the only one. Everything else has been contained in some crazy snow globe-esque environment. Things change superficially every time you touch it, but not the big stuff. That all stays rooted to the spot. And without you, the snow doesn't even move.

Then something happens at home that you can't control. You're so far away you can't even touch it. And all you can do is offer a word or two by way of moral support and give thoughts and prayers.

You've separated yourself from all that. The world keeps spinning. That's not just a Korea thing.