Mi Querida Mendoza

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.