Australia

A hundred million miles and suddenly only a few feet away. We stepped out into the Sydney air and in an instant I was transformed. Gone were the countless hours of travel, dragging my heavy bag through post-blizzard New York snow, anxious pacing of terminals and restless sleep on cramped seats. Gone were winter stress and Real Life sorrows. All is forgiven, I thought, as the sweltering air of Australia hit me straight in the face.

The feeling of recognition comes back in steps. The humid air like velvet on your skin. The incessant songs of cicadas. I rolled down my window and the scent of eucalyptus flooded my senses. My tongue contorted to form sounds of another language, trying words out quietly in the backseat as we drove past signs and familiar objects. The sand squeaked between my toes and I couldn’t help myself, I left the others and ran the last 50 yards to the water, letting the Pacific wash over my feet like long-lost friends reuniting at the airport exit. Hello, again. I’ve missed you. The beach stretched out for miles in either direction, with a few scattered fishermen still strewn across the late afternoon sunlight, but mostly the place was empty. I giggled the entire time. Finally finding my favorite flower and realizing that it smells just as overwhelmingly comforting as every time before; I breathe it in in deep hits, as though trying to consume it entirely and I cannot get enough.

Australia brings out the very happiest child within me. Immediately, I forget my qualms, my concerns, and my insecurities. The world and its people fade away, and left is only my body, my quivering heart, and this land. I absorb every flavor, every scent, every scene of the landscape that envelopes me. I laugh with reckless abandon and stare at every leaf as though it were an entire new world for me to discover, exploring with innocent curiosity every possibility presented. We go for a morning swim and I cannot get myself to leave the water, straining against the mighty currents only to let myself be swept away a second later, but unable to leave when time is up.

What if we return and are disappointed?, my mother said a few days before we left. With expectations so high, it was a fair query. But as I lie in bed, staring at a million unknown stars with the heavy air draped around me, I am already plotting my future here. How every trip is a blank slate. How every trip is a new life, in the making.