Robert Kirby’s humor column today is about post-mission readjustment. I’ve been trying to come up with a blog post on just this subject for a while, but his article is funnier than anything thing I probably could have done, so I’ll just link to it.
In college, a couple of my roommates and I found it entertaining to sit very close to a very recently returned missionary and flirt a bit, just to watch him sweat. Cruel? Absolutely. But also a lot of fun. Mostly, though, I just watched with a distant curiosity as the recently returned elders readjusted.
I specify elders because the sisters didn’t seem to have as much of a problem readjusting. I imagine this is due to gender differences, as well as sisters usually being at couple years older. Or maybe I’m just not observant enough. Please let me know what you’ve observed.
However, I am aware of my own post-mission readjustment issues. I had no problems with guys or watching that evil TV (Mom had kindly recorded all the X-Files episodes I’d missed while gone, so I promptly and giddily began the X-Files marathon). No, my issues involved wanting to avoid as much human contact as possible. After 18+ months of having to be outgoing and social and constantly being surrounded by people, I just wanted to be ALONE. That first semester back at school, my plan involved going to class and church and nothing else. I’d just lock myself away – ALONE – and study. The plan didn’t work out as well as hoped due to an unfortunate calling as FHE group leader and some mandatory study groups for a couple classes (okay, they actually turned out to be fun), but overall, I achieved my goal of isolation. My poor roommates… they must have found me a bit odd. They were so nice, and always invited me to join them when they went out or did anything. I believe I joined them twice over the course of the semester.
But summer arrived, and I got a grip and balanced out to the well-rounded individual you read before you today. Actually, the anti-people phase aside, the mission did have the beneficial effect of helping me get over a lot of my shyness, so I’m happy about that.
So now it’s confession time, dear bloggernaclers. What was your immediate post-mission life like? If it’s too shameful, feel free to talk about your siblings or friends.