Coming back from my year in Asia was an emotionally conflicting experience. I thought it would feel amazing to come home, but what I found is that home was nothing like the place I left behind. My family was moving, many of my friends in college had graduated, and my worldview had changed considerably. Those all put distance between me and people I cared about. I felt alienated, a stranger in the place that should have been most familiar to me.

I recorded this piano improvisation at the time. That was two years ago. I think that this captures how I felt better than the words above. The music is warm, but there are unexpected turns in the harmony that sound a little out of place, like I was back then. The same melody keeps repeating itself, just as the thought that I kept mulling over again and again at the time: why was everything so different? Why didn't home feel like 'home'?

This is a musical snapshot of a poignant moment in my life.