Blog #37: Stars

Growing up in the open fields of Kansas, I loved looking up at the stars above. I couldn't go outside after dark without taking a moment to glance up and behold the innumerable stars that speckled the sky. In fact, I loved them so much that I asked for a telescope for my 9th birthday, which I think is still lying around the house somewhere.

Tonight, as I sat outside a villa of my hotel, not even knowing what village it's in, I looked up at the stars and was reminded of home. Many things were different- the stars here aren't as luminous as they are back home, I was surrounded mostly by strangers, some of whom were singing traditional Indian songs, the constellations were in different places in the sky, etc. Yet, at the same time, the familiarity of stargazing, and the act of sharing that experience with other people, made strangers feel a little more like friends, made this foreign land a little more like home.