Kyle Hepp

July 29, 2009

I saw my BEAUTIFUL friend Julie today and she said, “I need less photos and more Kyle Hepp from your blog.” So I’m going to give that a go right now.

We’re back in the city where I grew up. It has completely changed. They had just built a new mall when I was a junior or senior in high school, but now the entire area around the mall is built up with restaurants and (failing) businesses. There are so many vacant buildings that didn’t use to be empty before. My mom and stepdad had bought a house in a sub development that didn’t have very many finished houses and now the neighborhood looks like a completely new place. We went out to eat with friends and a guy from high school that I wasn’t good friends with, but definitely knew, didn’t even recognize me. Things are different, that’s for sure. And I didn’t expect them to be the same, it’s just a weird feeling.

Basically, I feel like a stranger in the place where I grew up. It’s been two or three years since I’ve been here last and I no longer have my roots planted down in Grandville. Aside from a few close friends whom we’ve been reconnecting with, most people that I hung out with in high school are really acquaintances now since we’ve lost touch. Most people who don’t much about my day to day life see seem to be really impressed with what Seba and I do for a living.

“WOW. People fly you in to photograph their wedding?!?”

or

“NO WAY!!! You live in South America? How cool!”

Stuff like that. But I have told my friends, “If you saw the hotels that I stay in when I travel for weddings, or if you knew how hectic and stressful it was and how much work traveling for a wedding entails, you might not think that I had such a cool job.”

Of course I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that photography entails, but I promise, it’s really not as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be. Ditto that for living in Chile.  If people only knew that I am just as completely fascinated by their lives and that any life in the U.S. sounds just as exotic to me as mine does to theirs.

For everyone’s who is concerned that we’ve abandoned our dog, don’t worry. She’s staying with my in-laws. At first Seba’s mom said, “No dogs on the bed or in the bed…EVER!” Papito is now sleeping underneath the covers with her head on the pillow. And pretty much running the house. Since she lived with us in that house for a while I feel like she knows that it’s a safe and good place for her, and plus Seba and his dad have the same voice so I think that’s comforting for her too. But really, she’s just a happy, low-stress kind of puppy. If anyone is feeding her and giving her love and attention, she’s happy. She’s not the kind of dog that refuses to eat when her owners leave. But, being away from her is the hardest part of this trip. I miss Papito so much, even though we’ve been webcamming with her.

And since I feel like I’m cheating on Chile when I write about other countries, I was kind of thinking about doing a group blog next week. Would anybody be interested in writing about the biggest reverse culture shock they experience when they go back to their country of origen?