Goodbye

I'm at work. It's our last day. Tomorrow night, we go home. Our home. The home we made together for ourselves. Colorado.

We have grown so much in the last two years. The life education we received was much more intense and severely enlightening than anything we signed up for or expected. And I don't think we'll be able to focus on all the wonderful things about it until we have some distance and space from this life here.

And yet...goodbyes are in order. We leave wonderful people, a fascinating culture, my first teaching job, a language we've cultivated in ourselves, and norms and expectations we have finally adapted to. We are taking our experiences with us, the beautiful and the ugly, the severe and the suave, the scary and the comforting--they have all changed us. The rest, we leave behind.

Goodbye, year-round beautiful flowers and gardens.
Goodbye, awe-inspiring volcanoes. Cotopaxi, twice you rejected me. I was never able to try for a third.
Goodbye, seasonless year--holding us all in a perpetual springtime.
Goodbye, rain. I will miss you not.
Goodbye, easiest teaching job ever. I may miss your ease later in life.
Goodbye, eucalyptus leaves in my running park, filtering sunlight and freshening the air.
Goodbye, fear. Disappear. I don't want to see you again.
Goodbye, chatty, kind, and endearing students. I love you.
Goodbye, slow internet. I hope one day soon you can be fast.
Goodbye, colleagues. It's been one helluva ride.
Goodbye, climbers. You people are awesome. I hope we meet again somewhere soon.
Goodbye, airplanes overhead. All the time. Oye.
Goodbye, cheap and deliciously perfect steak. I think maybe we took you for granted and may regret that soon.
Goodbye, kind families that took care of us. We will always remember you.
Goodbye, pan de yucca, fresh fruit juices, my favorite yogurt, and all other yummies.
Goodbye, all the broken stuff in my classroom.
Goodbye, tall concrete.
Goodbye, Galapagos and jungle. You are treasures.
Goodbye, Canoa--home aways from home, great friends, lovely vacation spot.
Goodbye, severe green landscape with your nausea-inducing, twisty, curvy roads.
Goodbye, valley, goodbye, sigsi--our one climbing area, goodbye clothing that doesn't fit me.
Goodbye to all the things too numerous to name but that still made an impression--like the crowded buses, the sink holes, easy travel to the coast, etc.

Tomorrow night, we board a plane and say our goodbyes from above, looking down and back, on our first international living experience.
Goodbye Quito.