Easter Blues

Apologies for taking so long to post. Life has been a lot of crazy the past few weeks, which you will be reading about shortly. I have decided to break up the posts, and the first one, unfortunately, is a bit heavy. Fear not, however, as the next couple will be appropriately wacky and lighthearted to make up for this one.

Easter was a few weeks ago, and, to be honest, the days and weeks leading up to it was a sad time for me. A number of things contributed to my melancholy. It hit me for the first time that I am at least an ocean from my family and friends, and just how much I miss them. It’s strange to be away during a holiday that you typically would spend with loved ones. Work was fulfilling and busy as ever, but I still was unable to shake my general bummer feeling.

Easter is a holiday of death and resurrection, and it is strangely ironic that a good deal of my sadness during that time came from the unexpected deaths of two great men that I knew back home. They died at very different ages and for very different reasons, and the news hit me harder than I expected. One death was the father of a very close friend from high school. I have nothing but the most positive and wonderful memories of him, and I wanted to be home so badly to be with my friend and her family. The other was a close acquaintance from MIT, and I will always remember him as a loyal, kind and generous friend. As in the death of my friend’s father, I wanted nothing more than to be with my MIT family to mourn with them and comfort those who I know were far closer to him than I.

After hearing this news, and after a few not-so-great days, I was able to get out of my funk. Sometimes, I just have to look outside and remind myself of where I am. This chapter of my life is an adventure. I am not exactly in my comfort zone, and I’m probably going to have some bad days. But I’m going to have a lot of good ones, too. The inherent kindness of the Ghanaian people is something that I have continually turned to. Frankly, it’s very hard to be upset when the sun is shining and the people are nice.

I would like to end with a little prayer, or mantra, really, that is recited at Catholic funerals. It has always brought me a lot of comfort, regardless of my admittedly fluctuating opinions of the Catholic church. And since both of the deceased mentioned in this post were Catholic men, I thought it an appropriate way to end this post. They will be sorely missed. RIP Rob. RIP Mr. Barrett.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them.