L'Anniversaire

I don’t know why today is such a milestone for me, but somehow it is. I feel like I need to mark it, to say something profound about where I’ve been and where I’ve come. The thing is, though, I just can’t. I don’t possess the skill or the words to do it.

All I know is this:

- That this time last year I was packing my suitcase frantically before catching my afternoon flight. I believe I waited until the morning of to really start putting things together

- That I could not turn around and say goodbye because if I did, I would never have gotten on the plane

- That these pictures are the last I saw of Melbourne

- That I hoped that flight would never land, or if it did, that it somehow had placed me back in Oz

- That this year has thrown more tornadoes at me than any other in recent memory

- That I have not only survived these tornadoes, but I have also created some of my favorite memories

- That I am at once a completely different woman, yet somehow still the very same girl that got on that plane

- That while I was there I longed for a space to call my own, a dog, a regular workout routine and now I long for the horizon of endless possibilities of my time there

- That one day I will return and I don’t know how I’m going to cope with the fact that it will be the same but also never will be

- That they really need to sell Mint Crispy M&Ms and Tim-Tams in the US

All I know is the sum feeling of all these things, and what that adds up to in the end...I simply cannot tell you.