Nostalgia

"What do you miss?"

I can't describe it in words.  Really, there is no way you would understand.  And you probably won't even get it with the pictures.  Because honestly, how can you capture love so deep that you didn't know it could exist outside of your own family?  Or share how a small, tiny island in the middle of nowhere -- one that many told you would be the worst spot on the globe -- would open up such beauty to you, despite the ramshackle houses and trash littering the street?

Really, I can't tell it and you won't get it... and I have come to make peace with that.  But yes, I miss THIS.  I miss my name being "Missa" and my hands being constantly held by little fingers covered with dirt.  I miss ice cream on the dock at night when the power was out and the relief of the power coming back on.  I do not miss the cockroaches, but I do miss the adventure they provided.

I miss the growth I felt -- the awareness that the whole world really can exist on an island about a quarter of a square mile in size.  Because really, what is the world?  It is people living, breathing, moving, existing side by side, those you come in contact with on a regular basis and those you have learned to love as your lives weave in and out of each other's.

I miss the joy of simplicity.

The friendships that were unlikely.

The coming-to-an-understanding that my life 'back home' did not define reality.

I miss THIS.

And though Cinderella and her prince lived happily ever after, 

the point, gentlemen, is that they lived. 

 (quote taken from 'Ever After')