Sometimes when you are living abroad, you miss your friends, family, your favorite places (in my case, not only in Peru). You can feel that you are alone, even when you are surrounded from a lot of people. Managing your feelings is always difficult, you have to find your way to recuperate it from this emotional rollercoaster because nobody can teach you how to recover of this kind of sorrow.
Even the weather can help you to feel more SAD because you are missing see the sunlight. Fortunately, I never felt homesick in DC since I have Peru in my heart and in my hands (I can prepare any Peruvian dish anytime), but in the past two weeks I felt like a homeless. Not only because I could not enter my house two weekends ago, somebody locked the main door; but also because I felt unhappy in the place where I live.
This homeless feeling increased when I decided to do a volunteer job during Thanksgiving, one of the most important holidays in the United States. I went to help to a nonprofit organization to serve food to homeless and refugees, but when I arrived, they invited me to the table to share my experience during my stay in DC (my new fun fact)
Luckily, my fellow fellows are like my family here and I talked with some of them, and one encouraged me to go to a Latino party. I was not in that mood, but I needed to change my perspective. In that party I remembered my Latino spirit and dance cumbia the whole night. Also, I remembered taht I learnt an important lesson from Haitians, dance my sorrows. So, I disarranged my hair, took out my shirt and I danced the whole night and the homeless feelings disappeared.
Photo: Carlos Jáuregui. Malecón Saenz Peña, Barranco, Lima, Perú.
Moral: Even when you are trying to be optimistic the whole time and you are trying to only see the bright side of the life, there are some moments that you could feel sadness. It is not a big deal, you have to experiment this feeling to enjoy more the joyful moments. However, you have to be aware of you are the only person that can help you to escape from the loneliness and miserable feelings.
The soundtrack: Como me voy a olvidar. Los Auténticos Decadentes
Who is Carlos Jáuregui? He loves beaches since he went to Tayrona. However, before he went to that beach, he enjoyed more the countryside. Also, he loves to play with kids. More about him in the following blog posts.