I’m flying back to the states today. Barely here a week and
already on my way back south. Max made the comment, and I completely know where
he’s coming from, that it feels as though we were only visiting Jake in
Vancouver, and now we’re heading home, back to the real world.
This certainly still feels like something out of a fairy
tale. I always wanted to study abroad as a college kid. I never got around to
it, but even that wouldn’t have been as real as this. Only it lacks the real
feeling. We’re spending money to make it happen. Our names are on the lease.
We’ve put in time and energy into decorating the apartment and making it feel
like home. We’ve attained visas and paid electric bills. But there’s just
something odd about the whole thing. Inexplicably odd.
It’s one of the things you grow up talking about, with the
deep seeded expectation that no one you know will actually make it happen.
Moving to a different country goes against all the family values growing up in
the south teaches you. Leaving your family behind, choosing a country other
than the US, it’s all taboo. Everyone talks about how cool it would be, moving
somewhere else. Being the foreign twenty something. Exploring a new city off on
your own, getting to know its secrets and its treasures. Becoming a native. You
all know it won’t happen. No one has that kind of courage or defiance toward
their family. We’re all expected to graduate and move into one of the hip
townhomes just across the highway so our moms can bring house gifts and baked
lasagnas on Sunday.
But we’re doing it. We’re in the foreign country. We’re
finding cool new restaurants and making friends. We’ve broken out of the norm
and set out on our own. It’s overwhelming and it’s thrilling. It still doesn’t
feel real. I still lose my breath every morning at the sheer sight out the
window. The mountains and the huge city and the ocean. It’s unbelievable. This
can’t be our life. This can’t be our next step after Tulsa. How did this come
to pass and how on earth are we going to get away with it continuing?
This is ours. Wow.
