Leaving One Home, Returning to Another

It´s official, I purchased my flight back to the US. My roommates and I have continually joked about the fact that I was always saying, "I´m going to book my flight tomorrow." Someone would ask me when I was leaving and Pablo would chime in, "He´s booking his flight tomorrow." This went on for about two months until two days ago, I booked my flight.

During those two months of joking, I never had an exact date to return to the US, so it more or less felt like I wasn´t going home. I knew I would eventually leave, but not really sure when. Now, having that exact date, the reality has hit me. In less than three weeks, I´ll be stepping foot onto US soil for the first time in over a year. Im pretty much split down the middle on how I feel. On one hand, I´m excited to see my family, friends, and coworkers at the Loring, as well as to restart my life back in Minneapolis. On the other, I´m going to have to leave the friends I´ve made down here and the city that I fell in love with.

Before leaving the US, I wasn´t too sad to leave, because I knew I would be coming back after classes ended (though I did stay 4 months longer than planned). I say that I´m coming back to Argentina, and I wholeheartedly believe it, but I can´t guarantee a date, nor can I guarantee that my friends from now will still be around when I do eventually come back.

One thing I can say is that once I leave here, I won´t feel like I´ve left anything undone. Sure, I won´t have seen the north or south of Argentina, but that gives me all the more reason to return. What I really mean is that, I moved to Buenos Aires and spent over a year of my life here, in turn, accomplishing one of my largest life goals. Right now, I don´t feel that an extra month would add on any great cultural breakthroughs. You can quote any student that leaves Buenos Aires after a semester as saying, "you know, if I only had another couple months."

Luckily, I never had to say those words. I had my "extra months," nine to be exact.


Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina