Ever since I can remember
I have hated endings. I constantly wish that movies would go on for one more
scene or that an author would have added just another chapter. When something is
good, I struggle to let it go - I want to hold onto things forever. Where is
the good in goodbye?
Apply what I just said to leaving a place that I
consider my home.
Mi querida Mendoza, como te
voy a extrañar.
Eleven months and three
days later: I am no longer Millie who lived in Denmark and drives a red car.
While both of those things are still true, I am so much more than that person. My
name is Amelia, pronounced a variety of ways and frequently shortened to Ame. I speak a funny kind of Spanish, boludo. I wear more colors than just
black and am decorated with odd jewelry. I am over exaggerative and unapologetically
dramatic. I eat meat. I spend more time outdoors than indoors. I consider myself more argentine
than estadounidense.
You are not always the person you once were…
There are so many things
I am going to miss from my time in la tierra del sol
y del buen vino. For starters,
all of the people who impacted my life here and made me feel at home in a place
once so unfamiliar. I cannot begin to thank these people for all they have done
for me; the memories, the laughs, los boludezes, las
aventuras, cada puta cosa.
Como les voy a extrañar - nunca
les olvidaré.
I am going to miss the
way the mountains turn blue, mate – not just the tea but the culture, the urban
watering holes of Argentina: plazas, the willingness to help, the accessibility
of cities, la siesta mendocina, the person I have grown to be here.
Perhaps the hardest part about
leaving Argentina, in comparison with leaving the US, is that I don’t know when
I will return. There is so much uncertainty in goodbye.
I was not ready, I am not ready, I will never be ready
to leave Mendoza.
Current Location: 35,000 feet over the la pampa argentina.
Looking back at my year,
I have accomplished so much. I reached all the goals I set for myself, even if
they took time. My understanding of myself, the world, and myself in the world
has grown exponentially. I have hit incredible highs and sunk down into
incredible lows.
Vivía.
Mi querida Mendoza, como te
voy a extrañar.
Hasta la próxima. Besitos.
