This past week, I visited home for the first time in seven months. My parents moved shortly before I went to college, so when I went “home” for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I was in a foreign place, as far as I was concerned. This week, I saw my best friends for the first time in a long time. At first, I was sort of nervous. There was so much that had happened in the past seven months. I’m a completely different person (or I would like to think that I am). I knew they were going to ask me to tell them stories, and I didn’t even know where to start.
As the plane descended into Baton Rouge, a city of my childhood that I hold close to my heart, I started to get emotional. The last time I had been there, I had been a different person. I had been so uncultured and sheltered compared to how I am now. The level of cheesiness only escalated when I started playing “Callin’ Baton Rouge” as we flew over Tiger Stadium and into the Metro Airport. I got off the plane and waited for my bag nervously. Then out of nowhere, four of my best friends came running at me and attacked me as if it had been years rather than months that we had been apart. We laughed and hugged, and headed back home.
As we were in the car chatting and laughing, I realized something: nothing had changed. Obviously, so much had changed, but not really. We picked up right where we left off. It was like I had never left. We talked about our high school and our other friends like we were all still there with them. It boggled my mind that we could just pick right back up where we were when I left.
One night, I was at my friend’s house and we sat there talking about an event that had happened three years ago. If someone were to have walked in on our conversation, they never would have guessed that it had been so long ago. It was like nothing was different about our lives now compared to our lives during our junior year of high school.
The concept of the passage of time always confused me, but I had never really thought about it much before. The fact that a few months can feel like years, or that a week can feel like no more than a day is pretty crazy to think about. More than anything, this week reminded me that I have such an amazing community to come back to no matter what happens. So, thank you to those people. You know who you are. You’re so special to me, and I wouldn’t trade our friendship for anything.
And when the day arrives I’ll become the sky and I’ll become the sea and the sea will come to kiss me for I am going home. Nothing can stop me now.
– Trent Reznor
Viaja conmigo 