It all started with Ana and Javier meeting us at the brewery in New York two hours after I touched down. What a dramatic way to start this post. This post is not about Cambodia at all, but instead the preparation of leaving, and saying goodbye to friends and family. Being in Texas has been slightly isolating, I have been surrounded by family but not friends and I missed the feeling of a cool, crisp fall in the northeast in comparaison to the 90 degree Texas September. I could have said it started with Maddy coming all the way from Germany to visit me two weeks prior, seeing B&PopPop in Lubbock, or Olivia and Judy coming to visit me in July/August, but New York was truly the end.
I was in the taxi going from JFK to Manhattan, about to start my goodbye rounds, and I saw that Ana and Javier were in New York City that night (thank you Instagram). Despite having a 7:00am train ride to Boston the next morning, Ryan and I went to meet them to catch up. I knew I would see Ana about 5 days later, but it is always nice to see friends. And so I would say that that is what the marked the beginning of the end.
Flash forward to the 7:00am train ride, which was very painful to wake up for, we got to the train station and went straight to Boston College for the football game. For those who really know me, you know that I have probably only stayed for the whole football game once in my life. I am a tailgate glancer and a game socializer, meaning the tailgate is to catch up with friends and I usually talk to other people if I go to "watch" the game. Well this time, I promised Mr.Lane that I would stay the whole game because he gave me the ticket for the game. So for one of the first times ever, I stayed the whole game. And of course it was a sad loss by 3 points to FSU (I swear sometimes I feel like I am bad luck with the close calls with games. Anyone remember the BC loss to Harvard at the 2023 Bean Pot? I was there for that whole game too....). The weekend in Boston turned into me being sad to leave and I shoved all of my favorite things into 48 hours. I got to go to the game, I got to see Paul, Ruslan, Cady, and Judy, and we got to go to our old spots. I went to Tatte (a forever favorite) and we went to the Green Dragon, where they played Tyler Childers covers, which was a turn of events for this bar (we were hoping the band Booty Giuliani was playing, not because they are good but because the band name is iconic). We walked by the Government Center playground (including where cop slide is)... Judy and I walked around Cambridge and did fun things and then Cady, Ruslan, Juliana and I went to Seaport before I met with Professor Erickson (the GOAT-Greatest of All Time) to talk about books and life at Tatte. It was one of those weekends that made you feel stuck in time and you would never want to leave. Oh and the weather was perfect.
That weekend reminded me too on how great my friends are, how much I will miss them, and the closeness I have with them. I came back to New York, just to turn around again and take the train to DC the next day to visit Lily. It was nice she worked from home on Monday, and although we basically didn't chat for 5 hours because she was in fact working, it was nice to sit and do Khmer vocabulary in her apartment and rest from the weekend. That trip was just to see her and all we did was get dinner, but even then, I was sad to leave a childhood best friend. Caroline also did facetime us to chat and it ended in me laughing the hardest I have laughed in awhile.
(Also random side story, but the next day I said goodbye to Lily at 7:30am and took the bus to Georgetown and met two girls who volunteer in the same organization that I do, but in the DC group. I had been put in contact with them only the day prior and it turned into an 8:00am coffee the next day. After that I ventured back to the train station to head back to New York).
Fast forward to Wednesday leaving to go to Yale (I am skipping some other details of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, but this is a goodbye post, not a "what I did in a day." Tuesday night I volunteered with a community I met in March-which is awesome!- and I went to a United Nations General Assembly side-event conference on religious freedom on Wednesday morning). I caught the train on Wednesday to see Ana again, which was the planned trip. Ana is a close friend I met during my exchange abroad in Paris (this honestly sounds like a movie), and now she is doing her Phd at Yale. We took a little tour around the school, but then she took me to an event through her program. The event was a workshop on writing (because she is doing her Phd in Litterature-so the writing workshop makes sense) and what I learned from it was the importance about writing for yourself. If you have not gathered by now, I am not the greatest writer and I honestly do not really enjoy writing. I enjoy taking photos of experiences but I never like writing them down, so let's see how long this blog lasts (although I am determined to keep it going for the whole 27 months). This "workshop" that I landed in at Yale made me realize how I, so far, have enjoyed writing this blog because it is my genuine internal monologue with myself about how I feel and the experiences I have had. But also I am writing this for me to reflect and remember some great milestones , and it is just convenient that I can share it with other people.
The irony that Ana moved to Yale right when I leave to go across the world. I told her if I wasn't moving I would probably be on her pull-out couch every weekend. After a night of talking and a Keurig coffee the next day, I hugged Ana goodbye as she went to her class. I met Mia, a BC friend, at a bookstore and coffee shop in New Haven to catch up before she goes to Italy for her own adventure (thank you Mia for driving to New Haven to catch-up).
I rushed back to New York (as fast as the train regularly goes) to catch the Maneskin concert and spend my last part of the trip with Ryan. After not seeing each other for a couple of months, this made it the hardest goodbye because we have been through so much together. We went to the concert, saw MJ the Musical, got bagels at Tompkins Square Bagels (my favorite in NY), went to the Met Cloisters, saw the new Agatha Christie movie (go see it!), and walked around New York. Even when he had work, we met up for a coffee as his work break and when he returned to work, I continued to walk around in the rain. Like I said, this was probably the hardest goodbye because he is one of my best friends.
On Tuesday when I took the taxi to JFK, the taxi driver asked if I wanted to take the tunnel or the bridge. Because I did not know the difference I said I had no preference and he drove to the bridge. Instead of taking the tunnel, which was a different route, we began to drive down Manhattan towards Brooklyn (?I think). To anyone else, this would mean nothing. However, while driving to the bridge, I realized we were driving through the neighborhood where we lived last summer, down the street I walked up and down about a hundred times. We drove by the bagel shop, the French bakery, the flower shop, and all the other memories from last summer. It really did feel like I was in a movie. (And if you do know me pretty well, it is true sometimes I like to think my life is a movie). I could have just closed the "book of my life" and left it at that because it was like a perfect ending.
However, the book is not closed but only just beginning. I came back to Texas, turning the corner on my goodbye trip. I spent the tail end of my goodbyes with my mom. Friday night, we went from a goodbye trip for another friend, to going to a speakeasy, to going to our favorite pizza place. At the pizza place, we have become friends with some employees there and so Friday night was still like a last hoorah even at the pizza place when I hugged all of them goodbye. Saturday I got to see my cousin's volleyball game and then on Sunday, we had a joint birthday party for my grandmother and a going away party for me. That was the last time I will see some family members for the next two years. The hugs were extra long and I promised Nana that we would still have a call every Friday, although I told her to please not call me in the middle of the night. She even called me the morning I left for Atlanta to make sure I was all packed and ready to go.
(Also another side story, but Nana and Papa usually do not tell us anything that happens in their lives. For example, I was the first one to find out when they had COVID two years ago because when I called Nana I said it sounded suspicious that they "couldn't leave the house," and they said "welllllllll, we have COVID". Same with this past week! I was talking to Nana and she said "welllllllll, there was a water mocassin snake under the planter right outside the door, so Papa wheeled out there, sat right in front of it, and shot it twice." Only in Texas. Also I saw the photos when they put the snake back together and it was HUGE.)
Continuing on... While Lulu (my dog) knows I am leaving because she asks to get on my bed before I go to sleep every night, I think it has hit me the least. I just finished packing to head to Atlanta this morning, which would not be as big of a deal if this was a trip, but I am leaving for two years. I also just finished packing my other things to store away in my mom's house (my "temporary" room is turning back into the guest bedroom). My last goodbye is with my dad
today and Thursday before I truly depart by myself. Wish me luck!
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