ok i rembered my dignity and. wow i'm not thrilled with my prior self-abasement. but that does not change my correct conclusion that i was going about my return all wrong. chasing an expected happiness that not only failed to make me happy, but warped my perceptions of my surroundings. before i superimposed perfection on this place where it did not belong, and now i superimposed a desert of futility on this place where it did not belong. maybe i should learn about the new people here, and everything else that is new, instead of painting them with this broad perceptive brush without even understanding them. for is not understanding part and parcel with the love i seek, both to receive and to give? it is challenging to plainly admit that most obvious and universal of human desires, and its less obvious pair - the desire to be loved, to be close, and also the desire to love - in part because we perceive ourselves as too flawed or broken or unhelpful or unuseful or noncompliant to deserve it. so, even though my prior attempt to return came from a flawed place, i'm glad i had the courage to admit that desire to myself and to you. and with it i return again, not in a spirit of false expectations, but in a spirit of growing faith in myself and patient growth, to spend time among you. and, though i could not know it to be true or not, and have the inner strength to handle either way, perhaps you'd like to hear from an "oldhead" about their glory days, even as the potential for new glory days dawns here, too?