Trip Home and Final Thoughts
The flight home was long and uneventful. I did arrange to have a seat with no one around me, which made the trip more bearable. I did watch Forrest Gump (for the 40th time). I don’t know if I was just tired or missing my family extra, but I was more emotional than I had when watching it prior. I’m sure the flight attendents were wondering what was wrong with the big, weepy American!
I had a 5 hour lay-over in LA, so I met up with a close friend in LA that I hadn’t seen in awhile. We had lunch at a great fish place on Wilshire Blvd and spent the time visiting and catching up. My friend is an Orthodox Jew. I mentioned my dinner with my new Muslim friends and now lunch with him - and that I felt like Jimmy Carter (without the horribly misguided political opinions, of course!).
I arrived home around 11:00 pm and was so happy to see my wife and boys meet me in the airport. It’s good to be loved!
Besides my family (and Sam and John a little bit!), here I the things I missed:
- Diet Pepsi
- Driving my car fast and listening to loud Outlaw country
- Talk radio
- NFL coverage
- Twitter chatter
- American breakfasts
Some things that opened my eyes:
- We are all the same (I know this sounds cliched) and this sameness connects us; making diversity the things that make friendships rich.
- We Americans are unbelievably priviledge in our freedom and liberty - both to do amazing things or do nothing at all.
- Besides entreprenuers, there is a lack of industriousness here. Way too many people that have settled for a life of mediocrity. More on that later.
- Politeness is another thing that is lacking; just a general civility and being nice to each other.
- Boise is truly a cool place with cool people.
Overall, this is was #6 on the Best Experiences list. I have the opportunity (hopefully) to do the same workshop in Cairo and possibly Johannasburg; plus whatever doors being an “international speaker” opens.
In short, glad to be home, but ready to do it again!
