Starting the Journey

I'm now in the Eugene airport and about to begin the first part of my trip. I'll be in Boston until next Monday for a wedding, and then I'm off to London to stay with my friend Anastasia for a week. Saying goodbye to my family was hard. Not as hard, but still difficult, is saying goodbye to my hometown for a year. I couldn't wait to leave when I was in high school, but being back over winter break and then for three weeks this June has made me realize how much I derive a sense of stability from this place. The names of things are so familiar, the landscapes identifiable, whole sections of the city and surrounding countryside mapped out in my mind. The people look and act like I expect them to after living here for 17 years, and the hills are always blue in the distance, the fields lush and inviting under a sky that stretches unabashedly blue and gray to the horizon on all sides. I'm waxing lyrical, I know, and it's not that I love everything about Eugene. But there is something here that feels grounding, whether it's being able to bike the mile or so to the river where our water comes from or just waking up in the morning to the sound of my mother's voice and going downstairs to sit at the table she inherited from her grandparents and drink coffee across from the people I love.