When I Fell in Love...

June 21st will always hold a special place in my heart because of the deep-rooted love which took hold of me on that day. Early in the morning, I touched down at Shannon Airport in western Ireland. I was never to be the same again. I had jumped at the opportunity to study abroad after visiting my sister in Florence the previous spring; the culture, the newness of being in a different country, the challenges that went along with it...I knew it was something I'd have to explore for myself. When the time came, I remember feeling as though I was setting out for a great adventure, a great unknown. The flight across the Atlantic did little to soothe my nerves; had the windows come with the capability of rolling down, I would've had my head poking out like a dog.



 Advisory quad at NUI Galway....or Hogwarts.

For whatever reason, I grinned like an idiot going through customs. I think it was in part to earning a student visa, and part just being thrilled to get another stamp added to the passport, life's international social currency. Every bit of that day was a minor victory for independent me: train schedules, currency exchange, hailing a cab, checking in to my apartment...it was all breathtaking. I recall distinctly my first real interaction with an Irishman, an older gentleman who took me by cab from the bus station to my apartment in Gort na Coiribe.  He was as curious about a new American as I was about the Irish! We got on famously (a recurring trend when in such lovely company) while he took me around Galway city (for no extra charge), pointing out cultural sites and nightlife points. What a sense of relief it was, knowing I was in good hands in this city, in this country.

This reinforced the notion that love requires trust and respect. I trusted Galway to make the experience of studying abroad a turning point in my life, and I respected what she had to offer, and what her people had to offer. It is a widely-known fact that the Irish are among the friendliest people in the world. From the get-go, this concept was validated. It's hard not to fall in love when you are accepted for what you are without any reservations.

My apartment's living room...

I checked in and dragged my luggage into my new accommodations, wondering what my roommates would be like, getting butterflies all the while. Due to excitement, I didn't sleep much on the flight over, and so I napped before going out and exploring the city. As it turns out, the city's heart, my apartment, and NUI Galway made sort of a perfect triangle, with neither leg of the walk taking more than 12 minutes, unless caught in rain.

The things I grew to love about travel include the concepts of walking everywhere, unabashed cultural voyeurism, and immersion. Like all great loves, you come to learn a lot. Galway taught me a lot, and lit a fire inside of me for travel and seeing what the world has to teach me. It's an enduring love, and like all great loves, it only gets stronger every day.

At the Cliffs of Moher, all smiles. What's not to love about a partner who gives you space to explore and lust after independence?

Eraser?

When we think we know something for the longest time, and it proves to be false, the re-alignment of what is perceived or what is understood takes time to re-shape itself. There's very much a "back to the drawing board" mentality that is frankly maddening; the excavation in an attempt to identify where things went awry, where corrections need to be made based upon new information.

Sometimes, by using an eraser, we come to a wholly different conclusion. That's a lot of power in an object that can't state anything new. Rather, the eraser disregards what was previously known...

Space

He walked down the hall, looking straight ahead. Plain as day

The strangest thing was happening. As the hall grew shorter, the walls became wider. No, that can't be. Walls don't just expand. Must've just been his tunnel vision.

The vast expanses of time and space were reflected in his empty eyes, a window left open

He walked down the street, looking nearly straight ahead, his eyes never leaving the horizon.
People
People with dogs
People with phones
People with slowly stiffening necks
People with groceries
People with purpose
People with handbags and loud shoes and a place they need to be

Simply passed by as he looked toward the horizon.

The horizon isn't ever straight ahead. It's perpetually at a slightly downward glance; to say that he looked straight ahead isn't entirely accurate.

When he looked this way, it was never with a song in his head or a nagging thought on his mind. It was the absence of such things that made the gaze impenetrable. A truly clean slate, a vacuous mind.

The steps measured somewhere in the tens of thousands, the blocks in the dozens. When he closed the window and let the world in, he found himself at an unfamiliar location, right where he intended to be. He set his jacket down on the same chair he did every day.

Drying his hands of the cold water that slammed closed the window, he felt

He felt.