After a much needed weeklong nap, I was finally able to reflect on the world-wind of a trip I had just experienced. Returning to Canada was a bittersweet endeavor and I believe each student on the trip left with life changing outlooks on the world. Although in many ways I’m happy to be home, in my privileged environment, I can’t help but feel a little depressed over the course’s completion. For me, the end of the trip marked a pivotal point in the conclusion of my undergraduate, but it also revealed the possibility of design outside of a university setting. Working with new, and different personalities was both a challenge and a rewarding insight. This trip no doubt gave me the new perspective I have been craving the last few years.
Returning home, I was faced by many people with one simple yet loaded question; “How was your trip?” As I settle back into my life, post-India, I met this inquiry with generic answers, like “awesome” or “great”. However, I know the truth to be much more complex then this. India was incredible, beautiful, ugly, rich, poor, hot, cold, fast, slow, friendly, insightful, frustrating at times and full of surprising contradictions. My feelings for the country are neither love nor hate, nor are they ambivalent. I feel deeply for what I have learned and experienced, and can’t shake the feeling that I will one day return.