Entry #23 / 11th to 15th July 2022
Despite wanting to cling to the good and inspiring emotions I felt in Brooklyn on Saturday, it seemed like a totally different life when the next work week began. It felt like my alien ship crashed and landed back into a reality that no alien would ever want to crash land into.
Though, as the week processed, I realised one of the reasons I was in a shitty mood.
‘Even in travel, you can never escape the fact you are a woman.’ The responsible voice sighed heavily one morning as I packed in one of my mensural pads into my backpack.
I didn’t feel so bad about being isolated from everyone this week. It hit me mostly on Monday, but as the days went on, everyone seemed… okay? I was invited to eat with some people on campus, and we had amusing conversations, though they did most of the talking.
I think my day in Brooklyn helped me more than I initially realised. As I didn’t feel so dependent on everyone liking me or wanting to hang out… I knew that the path that I was going down was the one that I was meant to go down alone—for the most part. But it doesn’t mean I can’t have nice conversations with those around me.
But as I was feeling more and more crap as the days went on, the universe showed me kindness.
One instance was when I was making my way into the Pleasantville town centre, and I had just left the campus when a honk was sounded.
Confused, I glanced toward the road, where the familiar yellow school bus with a familiar driver stopped near me.
“Hey!” Carl, the school bus driver who always dropped us off at the university campus, exclaimed. “Where you off to?”
I forced myself to overcome my stunned state and shouted back: “7-Eleven!”
The school bus doors whipped open, “Climb on in. I’m heading that way.”
Not needing to be told twice, I jumped into the bus and sat in the front seats.
Once we had reached the destination, I eagerly smiled at Carl as I climbed out. “Thank you so much!”
He returned the smile, “You have a good evening.”
“You too!”
There were other ways that kindness found me that week, but that memory will always stand out the most.
Another way to get over my low mood was to get excited about the next weekend, especially my trip to Philadelphia.
I knew this was what I wanted to do the moment I came back from Washington, D.C. The only reason I didn’t do it the next weekend was that I thought it was important to have a breath in between distance-based travels. However, it turned out to be not much of a breath, as my day in NYC/Brooklyn was just as impactful as Washington, D.C.
And that made me both excited and terrified for the impending impact of Philadelphia.