YOU CAN NEVER WANDER TOO FAR FROM HOME BY VAATHSALYA KARPE
I missed Hyderabad the second I left. Everything went by in a blur, quicker than I could process. My extended family, all of my cousins and aunts and uncles who were still in the country, had come to the airport to send me off. My departure was an excuse to get together and catch up on gossip. In the midst of the chatter that buzzed among them, I tried to savor all of the people around me, to capture and remember them with my eyes and my camera. I didn’t know when I would see them again, and, for a split second, I didn’t want to leave. While I waited to walk through the airport entrance, I felt myself being torn by my past and my future. On one hand, I was terrified out of my mind — I was be leaving everything I’d ever known for an unknown, and on another hand, I was excited for the endless possibilities that I was stepping into. But most of all, I was jittery with nerves and emotions I was trying not to show. I reminded myself that this was a choice that I was consciously making and that I was leaving much earlier than most of my cousins did, who usually waited until grad school to leave home. As the
tears threatened to spill, the mellow August evening breeze playing on my face was a brief reassurance that everything was going to be okay. After a slew of hugs, kisses and goodbyes, my promises to keep in touch and their teasing threats/pleas not to forget them, I left. I walked through the doors with all the courage I could muster, which wasn’t enough to look back one last time. The stress was already taking over me as I entered the airport, for it was my first time flying internationally in over a decade. My dad was on the line, explaining how to get through the airport while trying to mask the fact that he was more stressed than me. The endlessly long and messy baggage check line made my paranoid-self very grateful I said goodbye to my family earlier than they suggested. Somehow, I successfully navigated through the airport and found myself at the flight gate. I wished I had more time to catch my breath and roam around. Looking at people travelling together made me wish I had a companion to ease my nerves. But before I could get too caught up in my feelings, I was on the flight.
