I had to do it

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So I have a problem.

If I keep traveling around the world, falling in love with different people and places, and leaving pieces of my heart everywhere that meant something to me...

Eventually I'm going to run out of heart to leave behind, right?
I can't have my heart on 7 continents at once, can I?
Would I eventually just turn into an empty shell, too split up do anything?

.... I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just making myself an excuse for a return trip, so that I can say I'm going back to reclaim a piece of my heart. Because I need one. Because...





I'm going back to Edinburgh.

I'm going back to the city I know better than Ames, to the city I've spent more time walking around than I have ISU's campus. Back to the city where I still remember exactly what skyline awaits outside every wynd and close. The city that has never left my imagination. The people who welcomed me and became another family to me. The coffee shops, the cobblestones, the pubs, the spires. The mountain I ran up 3 times a week in order to look at the castle I never stopped seeing. The mates who said that a year is too long, that the Yank was welcome for New Year's. I'm going back to the first place I ever called home outside America; I'm returning to the first city to truly capture my heart for good.

And I can't stop smiling.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D


"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more."

"For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re pulled ever deeper into the inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with."

- Pico Iyer



Just to clarify, I'm going to Scotland for 10 days after Christmas this year. Not studying abroad.

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Comments

[Batista]

Wow. Can I use this when I teach Humanities next semester?

[Toni]

It's good to follow your heart wherever it leads you, Josh!
Go wherever your heart beckons you, Josh... for those with free spirits are caged butterflies if they cannot roam... and never fear that your heart has a finite capacity for love... I think you will find that the more you embrace your passions, the more your heart will expand and grow to accommodate all that you love. Have a wonderful trip... I can't wait to hear all about it! Lotsa' luv, Toni xoxoxo

[Auntie R]

Josh, How cool! I'm jealous, but you better save a little bit of heart for the Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay!!( AND ME)