As the Wartburg Wind Ensemble adjusts back to normalcy back in the United States, the words of J.R.R. Tolkien come flooding into my thoughts. It is nigh impossible to determine which quote of his I would like to utilize, so I shall pepper many throughout this narrative. However, I shall begin with a quote that is most cogent of the band’s sentiment.

“Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone always has to carry on the story.”

And who is carrying on the story in numbers but the members of the ensemble! Images from the trip are being deposited in stockpiles on social media sites in such great numbers that it is approaching a limit where it would be harebrained to try to see them all. Perhaps you, dear reader, have seen some of these pictures, many of which likely contain someone you love.

Are they the same person in the picture that you are viewing as they were the last time you saw them? Likely after some hemming and hawing, you would be inclined to note no remarkable difference with the exception of a tan. However, the intrinsic impact of the trip is painted on the countenances of every member of the ensemble. Upon greeting your beloved traveler again, you may ask a yes or no question and receive an enthusiastic and high-pitched “hai!” in response, or you may be greeted in the morning with an “Ohayo goziamas!”; these small things are temporary conditioned responses to an alien language and culture. However, I implore you, dear reader, to note the more subtle changes. Perhaps your loved one will have a new understanding regarding their sense of home, of dignity and grace, and of fellowship. As many of the members of the ensemble discovered for the first time, “[We] are only quite little fellow[s] in a wide world after all!” As spry, doe-eyed youngins’, we have learned that the big world really isn’t so big. Heck, when we were leaving our hotel in Tokyo for the last time before the flight, I rode down in the elevator with someone from Grinnell, Iowa. How neat is that!! Tolkien acknowledged this specific idea of growing through travel by writing, “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out. Needless to say, our fences are became considerably shorter as a result of this trip.

Returning from this life-changing trip can and will be difficult. Many of us already yearn for the friends we made, the food we ate, the memories we shared, and the heated toilet seats (read: my roommates this morning). Coming back to the status quo can cause the feeling of a listing ship: which direction should I go now? I am reminded of a quote that is applicable to this expressed attitude:

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

While the end of the trip may have arrived, so has a new beginning. A different beginning. A wonderful beginning. A beginning to never-ending memories and a changed life.

I will end my post here as the final post for this blog with pictures from the trip. I selected these pictures very specifically for one reason: they are all pictures of people making memories. Because ultimately, we will forget the day or the place, but we will never forget the people that we made memories with.