Honk If You Can Understand This Post

I would like to take this time to try to explain a phenomenon that I have encountered in the last couple years. It is by no means a new phenomenon to the human race. I'm sure many have encountered it before me. But at the same time, there are probably at least a few who have never come across it.

I'm not quite sure what to call it at this point. Perhaps that will change by the end of this post.
It all has to do with movement. Not simply moving an arm, or moving your head. Rather moving your whole body to a completely different area (i.e. from my home town to Salem). New location, new atmosphere, new responsibilities, new people. In essence a completely different life. And that's basically the premise behind this phenomenon; a different life.

Let me start from the beginning.

Phase One: Development.
I grew up in one general area. I made lots of friends as well as thousands of memories. Under such circumstances one tends to adopt a particular way of life; a pattern if you will. This becomes the norm. Some of it gains the title 'habit' other aspects of it are considered part of your 'character'. Things like catch phrases and inside jokes develop.
All of this becomes a part of who I am in a sense. Granted most of these things are not really my core personality or character.
I've heard it said that a person is the sum of his experiences. I'm sure I haven't considered all the ramifications of this statement, but to some extent I think I'd agree with this statement.
Granted, I think that there is variation caused by our responses to situations. I think two people having gone through the same circumstances will still be two very different people because of how they respond to those situations. But that's not the point.
The point that I'm trying to make is that over a period of time a person, a character if you will, develops into something that is understood. However, for the most part it can only be understood within the domain in which it developed.

Phase two: Displacement.
After having gone through a great deal of development I then moved to an entirely different location. It wasn't very far from where I had grown up, but it was just far enough that I easily managed to lose most connection with the world I had come to know. I wasn't trying to cut myself off. It just happened.
So I was in a new location with new people and new experiences ahead of me. Even though I was, in a sense, the sum of my experiences, I could never effectively relate those experiences to this new environment. In order for these people to come to understand who I was they would have to experience me through the new situations that would occur in the months to come.
However, the me that they would come to know would not be the same me that my previous domain understood. For as this new domain began to understand me based on my responses to these new situations I would also be changing as I encountered these situations. In a sense I would be known as a completely different person, when in fact I was only a slightly different person.
It might be different if the cycle ended there, but that's not how cycles work.

Phase Three: Relocation.
Come the end of the school year I moved back home to my old stomping grounds. It was actually very much the same situation that occurred when I moved away to begin with. Not only did I have to adjust to this lifestyle, but I was also cut off from the second domain, and I couldn't ever effectively relate my experiences to the first domain.
The only difference was that this first domain had already known me based on previous experiences. This meant that though it could tell the differences in me, it also had a previous understanding of me to measure the changes against.

Towards the start of this post I mentioned things like catch phrases and habits. It was actually these small things that allowed me to notices that there were changes in me that couldn't easily be understood by the different domains. As I would go from one domain to the other I found that there were certain things that I couldn't take with me. Not physical things, but mental. In a sense I had to set aside certain parts of my life because they wouldn't make any sense in the new area. There were tons of inside jokes that were way outside their domain. These things could not live in such an environment. There were habits of living that weren't possible considering the physical structure of my living quarters. All these things, that had become a part of how I lived my life, had to be set aside because they meant nothing.
It was the same thing upon returning to my home town. I had to then set aside other things while at the same time picking up a few of the old things. Of course because of the changes in my life not all of the old things still fit. It's like leaving a set of clothes for a while and coming back to find that you've grown out of them.

Right now I'm thinking about how the end of Summer is coming. And when it does I will have to again set aside many of the things that have become a part of my life, and again pick up a few shreds of the life I left at the beginning of the Summer.
I am excited though, because this time I know that there are a few things that I will have to pick up when I get there. Last time I had to start from scratch. This time I will be able to build on an already existent concept.

Two Weeks Well Spent

I just got back from my camp stretch. Two and a half weeks of high school camps with less than a twenty-four hour break between the two camps. Good times.
It started with Veritas. I know I've written about that a few times. This year was different though, because I was one of the leaders. It was rough, what with the lack of sleep after living for two months on and average of nine hours of sleep every night. (yeah, I'm a slacker). It also took a lot of energy to keep up with those kids.
I was able to get to know a lot of really cool people though. At the same time I was learning all kinds of crazy things about myself. I might wright about those some other time.

Anyway, that week ended only to be followed by the next week out at Tygh Valley. I was there with four kids from my church. I was mostly just responsible for three of them. It was a lot of fun. I was able to get to know those three boys a lot better, which is really cool.
Granted, my boys weren't anywhere near being perfect angels. But that's okay, 'cause neither am I.

There is just so much that I've learned about myself this summer. I'm not sure that I could explain most of it. There might be future posts on the matter in the weeks to come.
I only have just over a month before I head back to school. I leave on the 27th of August. I'm really excited about it. I'll get to see most of my school friends again, make new memories, reminisce about old memories. It's weird, I'll probably explain the juggling act of life later, but it's something I've been thinking about for a long time.

Well, for the next few weeks I'm going to be doing a lot of the same things I was doing for the two months previous to my camp break. Laters.