Transition

Have you ever felt that time is alternately crawling at a snail's pace but in the same breath flying by so quickly you can't seem to make heads or tails of where the days went? As I sit exhausted and cranky, my life haphazardly crammed in a dozen Dole Banana boxes, I find myself wishing I could rewind and replay the last two years in slow motion. I want to go on a ghost tour in Scotland and climb another snow-capped mountain in Lijiang. I want to recapture the feeling of comfort and family in Shanghai, and to repeat the thrill of a city illuminated by 烟花. I want to gossip with my coworkers, drink taro milk tea on the Bund, and spend lazy afternoons shopping with my mother.

Nothing lasts forever--I should know this as well as anyone by now. But Change always has its way of creeping up and startling me. I looked in the mirror this morning and found another freckle. I'm not going anywhere, it seemed to say, I'm here to stay. Tomorrow is the beginning of an odyssey that will change my life, and I am feeling very small indeed.