A New Story

It’s surprising-the things you miss when you enter another world and life. For example, I never thought I would miss the comfort of proximity; of knowing that, if my loved ones needed me, truly needed me, I could be in a car, or on a plane and by their side within hours. I also miss the convenience of a quick text message, or casually stopping by an old friend’s house when you’re coming through town. In short, it would seem that I am missing the comfort and convenience of the familiar. And that is only natural.

The comfort of texting my best friend about politics or our latest workout endeavors. Or the convenience of living under the same roof with a roommate as we share our daily cup of laughter and complaint. The familiar bars, familiar people, and the familiar way that you feel when everyone knows who you are, and everyone is aware of your story.

Here, I have no story. I am a mystery, and that is both exciting and terrifying in equal measure. I can invent, and reinvent myself each day-I can live whatever life I want to live because the past did not follow me to this place. There are now lifelong friends, no old employers, former classmates, ex-boyfriends, or ex-lovers. There is no baggage. It is a place to feel light and unburdened. It is a place to carve out a new story with new lovers and friends.

Does this mean that I forget all, rejecting the old and dear? Certainly not.

It does mean, quite insistently however, that I am not as or who I was before. There has been a change- a shift. Gravity acts and falls upon me differently here, and so too life unfolds in a more clear and peaceful lilt. I embrace its synchronistic cadence, and I dance my new rhythm on a blanket of unencumbered and vital air. I have come here, it would seem, to dance a new story into existence. I can think of no greater challenge or honor.

Let it begin.