“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place. Like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.”
Azar Nafisi

you know...
every year, I'm scared it's gonna be different
and I'm scared I won't make it back
but,
every year,
I return
and yes, it is different,
but it is glorious
and I have never been disappointed.
when all else falls, and the world rejects me,
I have a rock
because who I am
has only ever been who I am
whilst standing on it
and now,
I am about to mount the rock again
reclaim myself
and ascend even higher.
(but fading echoes in my head resound,
singing: this too shall pass)