Better than Prom

There is something that I call “The Prom Effect” that will
hit you hard if you aren’t aware of it.
It happens where you get super excited for one big event, decide that it
is going to be the best day of your life, and then it turns out to be a little
(or a lot, depending on the size of your imagination) less than you
expected. Just like prom. At the time, you are certain it’s going to be
the best day of your life, but looking back, the best part was eating pie at
Village Inn after the dance.
And usually that’s what happens. It’s the seemingly insignificant things that
you remember: the stuff that we don’t plan or organize always seems to be times
where we were happiest or living the most.
I don’t know why that is, exactly, maybe because we get so preoccupied
thinking that we should be having fun
we forget to actually do it. I don’t know.
What I do know is that while I have had an incredible time
on my various adventures, it wasn’t bungee jumping, or riding an elephant, or
petting a cheetah that I am going to think about when my mind goes to
Africa. What I am going to think of is
all those beautifully random moments I experienced while finding a home worlds
away from what I know.
I’m going to think of superhero dinners, late night forts,
unscheduled mud fights, and fuzzy critters found on my bedroom floor. But most of all I am going to remember the
people that made these things happen.
Some friends on this journey were finding Africa just as new as me, and
for other friends, Africa has always been home.
I think if you asked any of them today, though, every last one would say
that at least one piece of their heart belongs to Cape Town: how big of piece
is up for them to decide.
I posted some pictures: maybe not as impressive as Victoria
Falls or the jungles of Botswana, but arguably just as beautiful. These pictures show the memories I will miss
most. Because Africa is nothing like prom.