I left that road far behind

It’s been well over a month since we’ve been back in the states, and I still get sad every time I have to say “thank you” instead of “danke schön”. In the three weeks we spent in Germany (and Austria) I grew accustomed to adventure. Every day was a new city, a new place, and strange people. I loved it. It was quite a shock to go back to the same routine the first week home, but then two weeks, three weeks, and now a month later I’d say normal life feels normal again. I look back on our trip and I am amazed at all that we learned, all the material that we covered in a way that felt, ounce for ounce, far easier to take in than material presented in a more traditional manner. The formal and informal curriculums both have made a great impression on me and my perspective. I have gained a deep appreciation for the men and women who were pioneers in modern science and medicine. Their fruits, our benefits, were the result of hard work, ingenuity and, for many who challenged the conventional wisdom of their time, courage. I also have a newfound appreciation for inexpensive beverages (har har). A meal in Texas is a coffee in Europe.

I find myself looking at the world differently since we’ve returned. I keep asking myself: Who discovered this? How did they discover this? Was this discovered intentionally and through brute force research or was this discovered by the fortune of the right mind being in the right place? My perspective has shifted in ways beyond science, as well. This trip made me appreciate more fully that the center of civilization is always moving. The United States was not always the center, and we will not be the center forever. The places around, the places far away from, the places that were once, and the places that will be the center are of great importance even now. They are sources of culture and knowledge that we benefit from having, and they are homes to people who are doing the same working and living and dying that we’re doing here, to paraphrase Jimmy Stuart.

If I had to be anything other than a proud black-Irish American, I’d be a proud black-Irish German hands down. Perhaps chance will bring us together again, Deutschland. Until that day, I wish you and all the Germany trippers a herzlichen auf Wiedersehen.