As swiftly as it began, it ends. Life jammed into a lesportsac carry-on, passport in hand, leaving on a jetplane. I have not regretted a moment of my trip. Not the days I woke up at 3:00 a.m. or the ones I slept in until 1 p.m. Seven different beds in four countries, and seven flight naps later, I am coming home.
I met hundreds of fascinating people from all corners of the world. Montevideo, Florianopolis, Tehran, Tucson and Hamburg - every person enriched my experience and gave me a renewed enthusiasm for chasing the life I want all across this great big world. Midlife crisis, honeymoon trip, or in-between jobs escape - there's a reason to get on a plane and explore, or just say hi to someone in an elevator or talk to the taxi driver. For me, everybody has counted in my adventure.
I come back with so much ahead of me. A senior spring, two weddings, a graduation, a camp summer, and then that grown-up job thing. I'm excited to suit up for training in Herndon, Virginia on September 9. And I'm excited for every single day until then.
If you could ask for anything more, don't let me know what it is. I've never been so perpetually content, fearless and happy to be here, wherever that is. Here isn't a place - it's the friend across the table, the give in the mattress, and the music in your headphones, the laughing as you stumble home Saturday night. 'Here' is a present mental state, an engagement with your surroundings, the breathless excitement to memorize the details and cling to them. I've felt that high of 'here' for two months straight, and I'm not giving it up, Lo Barnechea, Chile or Nyack, New York.
I feel like this post should have a long Hollywood thank yous list.
-First, my mom and my aunt, who kicked things off with a splendidly spoiled birthday in Istanbul, bagels for breakfast and dinner overlooking a river and some mosques. Thanks to them for making sure that my boots got resoled to walk me around the world while I got resouled' wherever I went. Supporting roles include Syrian refugee Baare, grant-writer Mukthar, and that sad baker girl, and New Mexico Sally - all won't be forgotten, either.
-And flight attendants.
-Let's not forget the Schatz family for taking me and Syndey in for an incredible Vienna weekend, and the ASBudapest crew, and those Hungarian slam poets, and the smoking pregnant lady who made me laugh.
-More flight attendants.
-Sebastian, Ilana, and Lidia for helping me with Spanish. Adineh, Nicole, and Sophie for being my willing adventure buddies, and Mauricio and Rebeca, the kindest classmates. The Ergas grandparents for treating me like just another of their dozen grandchildren, and my Chilean family for never letting me miss a minute. Max for being my first Chilean friend, for reaching out blog-to-blog never knowing we'd get drinks 18 months later. The gringas from the states who helped me reminisce about study abroad on the dancefloor, and Kate for letting me plan a two-week vacation ad handling my idiosyncratic ways each of the 14 days from north to south.
-Our San Pedro family - Alan, the hostel girl, crazy Mohawk guy, Marta, Claudia, Paulo & Thiago, Edison & Marionela, Miami Luis, Zorro, that Australian chick, and the flamingos and the mountains.
I leave Chile in five hours. It's not a goodbye, tearful and aching and clinging. It's a hopeful 'hasta prontisimo' as I ascend toward 3G networks, the Northwestern campus Lakefill, searching for my first apartment, and celebrating love and success with friends and family. In the chaos of boarding and landing over and over, I'm staying 'here' with my mind at peace, knowing there is this great big world with amazing people on it and I have the chance to be one of them.
And while I won't be blogging about it, I get to keep writing this crazy unpredictable story every day.
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