time

Time flies by with a speed that is utterly frightening and totally unrelenting.  Just two months from now I will be done with school and on my way home for my sister's wedding.  I may be flying home, in which case I will return here after the wedding.

Or, I might have a job in Georgia.  Or Massachusetts.  Or Virginia.  Or somewhere else crazily foreign to me.  I may be driving away from this state forever two months from today.

I'm so excited.  I'm ready for a new adventure.

But my heart hurts, too.  I truly love this town and the people who have made it some of the best years of my life.  I love the mountains, I love the water.  I love the rain, and I love the buildings.  I love the culture, and I love the ways I have stretched and grown through my time here.

And I'll miss it, I know.  I'll miss it with a deep, lasting pain that will remind me always of how real this was, and of how good it was.

And maybe, just maybe, someday I'll get to come back.

I know part of me hopes I never have to leave.