We made it home in one piece. I was very sore and pretty smelly when I pulled up in front of the apartment, true. But we came back with lots of pictures and many stories, and didn’t encounter a single speeding ticket or flat tire, so all in all, the trip was a success.
Anyone who is reading this and has returned from something spectacular at some point in their life can understand the bittersweet feeling of coming home. On the one hand, I certainly have had my eyes opened to how much I love living in the northeast part of the country. Everything is so close together! Drive a couple of hours from Albany and you can hit New York OR Boston OR Montreal. You can’t do this in the Midwest or the Southwest. I love the trees and green and the rivers more than the rocks and dust.
But I do miss the adventure of it, the feeling of being loosened from my responsibilities. Trips like this make you appreciate home so much while making you also realize there is so much to see beyond the county line.
Yes, the world is always moving, but more notable are the people moving on it. We can’t stop. I am home, but as I sit here writing this, my sister has just completed her first week of college in another city. My mother and her husband are away visiting relatives. My extended family is on their annual vacation in Cape Cod. I believe as a species we are naturally curious about the world beyond our own, whether we experience it through travel, story, movies and music, or food.
So while I am somewhat begrudgingly back to my average life, I am trying to find adventure in the openness of my future. I’m a post-graduate with four part-time jobs, bills, and ambitions that won’t quit (neither will the bills for that matter), and I’m not ready to give up exploring simply because, for now, I’m somewhat stationary. It’s true that my adventures are now mostly culinary, like last night when I accidently made approximately 500 cookies. But I’m not done exploring. My sphere is just temporarily smaller. :)
We’re not little children
And we know what we want
The future is certain,
Give us time to work it out.
