Some places I’ve been missing lately
Texas: the endless parade of sunshine, a steady stream of guac and margaritas, 75 mph speed limits, the Monahans sand dunes, the crisp sky.
Monahans Sandhills State Park
St. Louis: City Museum, after-dinner walks by the Arch, the greatest internship of my life, riding the Metro, getting kicked off the Metro for breaking the bike rules, my favorite coffee shop (that just happened to be a bike store too?), questionable adventures, missing the last train home, the New Year rave, bike riding on the [closed] interstate, hookah in a strange boy’s house, getting lost on foot (at night) downtown for hours, my adorable little apartment….
From my St. Louis apartment window
Kirksville: swimming at the lake, Il Spazio date nights, campus plays, biking everywhere, Pancake City (Shitty’s), dancing in the ATO basement, the BSU, running and basketball at the Rec, Sunday morning hash browns and chocolate milk, Saturday mornings at the farmers market, the S.S. Badass.
Kirksville, summarized
Minneapolis: riding the light rail, climbing behind waterfalls, skating across campus in my Chucks, engineering labs and equipment, a blanket of perfect white across everything, wall-projected sudokus, Christmas parties and layered beer pong, playing ‘Is it St. Paul or is it Minneapolis?’, watching the sun rise out my bus window, the science museum, the Chinese place with tofu duck and the best bubble tea.
Minnehaha Falls
And maybe it’s not the places so much as it is who I was in them. Away from here, I was growing, exploring, making mistakes. Away from here, I didn’t know those lessons all too well already. Perhaps it’s just that it’s the past, and that I know how it ends. I can romanticize it all, can dream away the droning sections. Perhaps it’s the restlessness, the boredom that always plagues me this time of the year. Who can blame me for wanting to be someone else for a little while, even if that someone ‘else’ is simply a younger, less wise version of myself?
I am always longing.
