I Came Back for You

I decided a few weeks ago that I couldn't take the yearning anymore. I had been eyeing tickets for months and I finally bit the bullet. I thought that I would feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and excitement but I didn't. I actually felt nothing. As I got on the plane in Newark and jetted off towards Zurich, I started to feel clouded in a mist of anxiety and disappointment. Disappointment because I had waited all this time only to feel shrouded in uncertainty. I had even gone as far as to ask myself multiple times,"What the Hell are you doing?" As the plane began to descend and the clouds made way to a view of the Bosphorous, it was still so surreal. I walked through the Visa line and Passport Control like a hazy dream. 







I picked up my bag and walked out towards the greeting area- my eyes searching a sea of unfamiliar faces. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice call my name and when I turned around I saw my old roommate for the first time in two years. And for the first time I felt the haze of uncertainty dissipate because it all became real. I could hear loud boisterous Turkish, I could feel the humid air, and I was standing there hugging the friend I had last left teary eyed and with hole in my heart. The cloudiness I had been feeling all day gave way to happiness and I began to cry. Like a long lost love, I came back for you, Istanbul. It warms my heart to find you still here waiting for me. 

Brittany