Tuesday, August 31, 2010
“I love airports!” squeals my friend Angela as we slide onto the DIA exit ramp, signs for terminals and wait areas popping up beyond the dash.
Airports… the word association frenzy begins in my head. Airports. Excitement. Energy. Escape. Possibility. People. Hellos… and Goodbyes. Goodbye Colorado.
I swallow. And then, I smile. “Airports always make me think of the opening part of Love Actually, where all the people are reuniting…”
“Yeah, yeah, me too, I love that!” Angela nods, her eyes lighting up.
We continue to chatter, filling our final face time with Small Talk about Big Things. After all, Big Things are happening in our lives: Angela is moving to New York (Yes, THE city! You go girl!) in a week and I am moving to Togo in two. We have each been chasing our respective dreams for years and now, at last, our dreams decided to turn in our direction and embrace us, to invite us to come on an adventure with them. It is exhilarating. It is wonderful. It is… scary.
Our conversation oscillates easily between the sweet thrill of change and the dry hesitation that accompanies a departure – from one way of life to another. Change is good, but it’s also change. I have given up my baby for adoption and dropped him off at his new home. I have packed everything I own into two suitcases, a backpack, and a closet corner (thanks Alex! 
). I have begun the agonizing process of deciding which books to pack for 27 months of unwired entertainment.
And now I am in Angela’s car headed to the airport, the Home of Excitement. Energy. Escape. Possibility. People. Hellos… and Goodbyes.
As we approach the curb curtly labeled “Departures,” it occurs to me that we belong there. The Departures curb is for people like us, people who are letting go of what has become “normal” and trying out something different for a while. We are departing, we are saying goodbye. Angela has another week here, but today is my day. My second departure, with one already behind me (Arizona) and one waiting ahead (Kansas).
It’s hard to say goodbye to people that make your world – it was excruciatingly hard in Arizona and it’s definitely hard now. But when Angela helps me lug my heaaaavvvvyyy luggage up to the Southwest counter (thanks Angela ) and we hug a big fat Goodbye Hug, we don’t cry. We may be a little freaked out, but we aren’t sad. Because we have Big Things awaiting us on the other side of this goodbye, and letting go of the people you love doesn’t mean giving them away.
Love what you are doing! Hope you can keep in touch the old fashioned way. Will you need writing supplies so that you can journal everything??