Choose to Take the Journey

He spins around and walks back toward his room. I hear his laughter echoing from down the hallway, “Haha-haa!”

I turn back, but I can’t resummon the mental image I had created. There’s nothing but a vast emptiness to my small room.

“Bui, get ready!” Goethe yells from inside his room.

“For what?” I yell back.

“We’re going out!”

It doesn’t matter that I’m moving. That I have just recently said goodbye to my Ocean Girl. That I don’t even have a bed to sleep on tonight. “Any night you go out, I go out,” I repeat to myself.

“You got it!” I yell.

Goethe darts out of his room. “Wait, I was just joking, Are you serious?”

It is a rare occasion, but tonight I see hesitation in his eyes. He doesn’t want to go out, and neither do I. “You wanna just hang out at home?” I suggest.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Any day he worked out, I worked out. Any night he went out, I went out. And vice versa. Goethe and I never did determine who would drop out of our little competition first, but I can tell you, he would have. Just kidding–maybe.

*****

All I could see were travelers. All I could hear were the sounds of rolling baggage wheels as Goethe pulled his car into the curb at LaGuardia Airport.

They say you are the average of the 5 people you associate with the most. If that’s the case, then during the 3 years I spent living in that house, I was like a blank canvas on which the vibrant colors of my closest friends came together: Jake, Brady, George, Manny, and Goethe.

At first I was intimidated by the lightning, but then I learned how to harness its energy.

At first the water seemed aimless, but I learned that it gave me peace.

At first the earth seemed immovable, until I learned how to move with it.

At first I feared the fire would burn me, but then I learned the purpose of its passion.

At first I didn’t know how to give back to the light, and then I realized that we each have our own inner light to give. No one is better or worse; each one of us has what is necessary for our own journeys.

“This is it,” Goethe said, snapping me out of my head as he often did.

“Thanks man.” I exited the car, grabbed my luggage from the trunk, and rolled it back to the passenger side of the car.

“I’m going to miss you, Bui,” he said from the driver’s seat.

“Thanks, I’m gonna miss you too, Goethe.”

“Hopefully, we’ll see each other again.”

“I’m sure we will.”

We leaned towards each other and clasped hands through the open window. As I turned to leave, I noticed how weighty my heart felt. I let out a heavy sigh to signal to myself that it was time to go, but my legs still felt like lead. Even my peacoat felt oppressive, as if drenched with rain.

“Hey, do you want this?” I asked as I took off my peacoat.

“Really?” Goethe asked.

“Yeah, I won’t be needing it where I’m going.” I passed it to him through the open window of the passenger door.

“Haha-haa. Thanks Bui!”

“Sure…” I never was good at saying goodbye. “I’ll see ya…”

“See ya…”

I turned around and started walking, laden with the memories of an unforgettable journey, uncertain if I was ready for it all to end.

However, now that I look back, I realize that that was just the beginning and I was merely collecting the puzzle pieces of a dream I could not yet discern. But that, my dear readers, is a story for another time.

– – – – –

Posts in this series:
Part 1 – Lightning Strikes Thrice
Part 2 – Green Waters Flow Westward
Part 3 – The Immovable Earth
Part 4 – El Fuego Rojo
Part 5 – Darkness is But the Absence of Light
Part 6 – The Traveler