ສະບາຍດີປີໃໝ່ລາວ

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Laos. Not a day goes by that I don’t feel that pain in my heart due to missing my family, missing my friends, and missing the girl that I am when I am back where I feel most that I belong.

Straddling two worlds is incredibly interesting.

I don’t have to wish that I am in two places at once because every day it is my reality.

How does one soothe the pain in a way that doesn’t deny it nor deny the happiness when I am so fortunate to also be in another world where I have been so incredibly blessed?

…

Every Lao New Year, I wish I was back in the homeland and celebrating with my family.

I am so incredibly thankful that I have been able to experience it. It’s such a beautiful celebration with some many amazing parts. To outsiders and foreigners, it might seem like it’s one big water fight and to all the perverts, a country wide wet t-shirt contest, but it is so much more. There is so much history and culture and spiritual beauty wrapped into it.

I am incredibly thankful that all those memories still feel as real today as they did that day I was experiencing it.