Traveling Home

When he opened his eyes, the rising sun caught him by surprise. It burned bright. Orange. As if it was ready to dive below the horizon, but as he sat there, transfixed on the pulsating orb hanging in the sky, he realized it was just starting to rise.

He was only beginning his adventure.

His mind was empty. Void of sleep. Lost to the world around him. Fuzzy. Hazy. He had spent the last day in the air, crammed next to over a hundred and fifty other travelers. Not only separated by armrests and rows, but language barriers and accents. Few spoke, even fewer attempted. His throat was raw - dried out by the stale air that had been pumped through the vents in the ceiling. The food that had been served was average, but left a metallic taste in his mouth - his stomach yearned for more. His eyes throbbed, wanting release from the contacts that had been constraining them for the last twenty hours. Legs ached, ready to stretch, walk around on foreign soil - unconstricted by the person reclined ahead of him.

And yet, here he was. He couldn't even remember falling asleep - rumbling along in a taxi, further and further from the tarmac that had been laid out well in advance to welcome him. Being able to stretch out, legs not hitting a seat relaxed him. He felt free. Of course he knew where he was going - the end destination, but it meant nothing to him. His goal was clear, but everything else was foreign.

Only some of the signs ahead of him made sense. Words. Phrases. He couldn't pick out entire sentences. It was alright though. There was something about the feeling of being alone, lost, stranded that made him feel alive. It got his heart racing. The mere thought of being somewhere - a culture he didn't know, a language that tickled his tongue, ready to come out of his mouth, but couldn't - food that wafted aromas unlike anything that had ever filled his lungs, places he had never seen, faces he'd never recognize. It all sent a shiver down his spine.

He felt fresh - cleansed. Free to begin anew, for as long as he was there. Create a temporary new beginning.

It was only when he was his furthest away, that it feel like home.