Coming home
It is 12 pm. I am standing in a group of people, KuSis some would say, and we are singing. We are singing our goodbye-song. Singing like we did it so often. Singing while seeing our parents (for the first time in a while), our families standing right in front of us. On the other side. They are so close but still they feel so far away.
So many things happened, so many moments of the last six months are waiting to be told, to be shared with our loved ones. But it all feels so rushed. Time flew by so fast. We all knew this day would come; the day the journey will end. We are happy, we are excited to see our family again, our home, but this soon already? Nobody was prepared for how fast those six and a half months would pass… This extraordinary time full of the wildest experiences and new friendships with so many incredible people. The time of our life, the time full of impressions of different lifestyles, of different landscapes and of completely different people. It surely was an amazing time that maybe never will return the way it was. And we all know that.
So, we are standing here on the main deck of the Thor, of our ship. We are standing here and we are singing. The song slowly gets to an end and the end of the ceremony is getting closer, minute by minute, second by second. My documents and certificates are given to me by Detlef and Ruth gives me the last hug. The moment has come: the ceremony is officially over and I am taking slow steps over the gangway. I´m looking through the crowd; searching for my family, my mother, father and siblings. There are so many people, so many faces and it seems like I can´t find them. But suddenly: there they are! My brother is jumping up and down and my mom is giving me a smile. I am walking towards them while slowly realizing that: this is it. This is the moment I was so excited for and so scared of at the same time… The Thor-world the world I was so used to is crashing into my home-world, a world that has always felt so familiar. This crashing of those two worlds is happening everywhere around me. Every person I spent the last six months with, every friend I made through highs and lows, they are all experiencing this weird and overwhelming feeling of coming home. After some last hugs, showing the ship to my family and eating the delicious food of the buffet, I carry my bags over on land and suddenly I am standing in the middle of Kiel central station. The feeling that the ship that was so constant in my life the last months will be so far away from now on is breaking something inside of me. I don´t want this to end, I don´t want to leave this bubble of classroom under sails, this bubble free of covid, free of the worries at home and full of adventure. I feel a little bit lost in this hall full of people and as the train starts, I slowly fall asleep.
The 23rd of April the day we came back to Germany, all of this happened six days ago. I´m sitting at home and thinking about all the things that are coming up in the next time. I will be starting school in a few days again, I will be seeing all of the people there again, I want to start to go to training again, maybe I start looking for a job. There are so many things I want to do, but still I feel a little bummed out. Although six days ago I was still standing on the Thor Heyerdahl, sleeping in my bunk and eating in the messroom, it already feels so far away. Day by day I´m getting more and more used to home and maybe I also start to accept it more and more. I´m starting to accept that the journey is over, that my classroom under sails trip was one of the most intense and amazing experiences of my life, but that it had to end, like everything does. It´s sad to see a time like this pass, to come back and to continue the life you left.
However, I think at some point an incredible journey like ours has to end. Because of the end after those six and a half months and the fact that this won´t come back; this makes it even more special. It makes you even more thankful for this chance, to be a part of it and it makes you excited for the next year and the next 34 KuSis that will experience this insane trip. You´re also excited to be a part of the KuS family of the reunions you will have with all the ex-KuSis of the last years. And even if this weird feeling of being home again might stay for a while, you know that somehow everything will work out and that sometime coming home can be good.