the old apartment is totally empty, sans for trash. all belongings are now at megan’s apartment and i can officially begin my two-week countdown. it’s so strange to be on the other side of the year, the side that seemed so, so far away when people said, “it’ll slip right by.” it was winter then, and i didn’t really believe them. i was convinced the year was going to be the longest of my life. and at times, it really was. but it has been, in every unexpected sense of the word, an adventure. not one of those glamorous thrill-seeking adventures, but a very slow, deep, internal, challenging, infuriating, embarrassing, inspiring, eye-opening adventure in trying to understand and navigate the political and emotional and geographical boundaries that define and separate us. this has only been a year and yet i still haven’t fully grasped the effects of the experience. just imagine if we spent two years, three years, twenty years living exempt from these borders. imagine if they weren’t even acknowledged in the first place. i can only assume that our understanding and compassion for ourselves and for humanity would be mind-blowingly unlimited.
