Then We Came To The End

Well, while this space will still be marching through the latter stages of my adventure for a few weeks yet as I wrap up the rest of my Scotland stories and my Scandinavian loop, in real-time today is the day I return to the States, to a different set of routines, logistics, and practicalities. In a lot of ways I'm ready and in some ways it's happened impossibly quickly.

But I am most definitely ready to have my own living space again, to carve out my own schedule and make the most of the months ahead, to have a kitchen and a couch and a bed that are mine-all-mine, and to bring the lessons of this time abroad to bear on the life I lead in what's almost certain to be my final year in Boston.

Arlanda Airport! Gateway to the FUTURE!

I've been over here for 107 days - almost a third of a year, almost as long as my departure was from the day my wife walked out the door. I think I've found my way back to myself in a lot of ways, and I've grown from even the me-I-liked that existed before the incredibly difficult year that was 2015. It feels great to find that I can continue to change, grow, and explore. The challenge is to keep those engines running in the more stressful environment I'm headed back to, but I'm full of hope and have rediscovered the support systems that I need to make my way. All this feels good and encouraging, and I'm very mindful of how little I can do on my own!

And so, that's an end to this trip. As I say, more posts coming to detail the last stages of the journey, and I may use this space to kick around too-long-for-Facebook thoughts in the months to come. It'll definitely come alive again late in the year, when the goofy pricing scheme of airline tickets will have given me a cheaper return flight than a one-way would have been; no idea what that journey will entail, but excited for a reprise of these explorations, challenges, and - there is no better way to phrase it - neato times.

Thanks for following along. I hope it hasn't been too myopic and navel-gazing, and I hope to skim new horizons with y'all in the not-too-distant future!