Nostalgia

The other morning I was walking to campus as the sun was rising, and saw something like this (please note that this picture was taken downtown Provo...near the Hookah shop).

The sun was hitting Timp in such a way that it stopped me in my tracks, and as I breathed the cold, frigid air into my lungs, I couldn't help but be amazed. As I was standing there (teeth chattering, and lips quickly turning blue), I was all of the sudden hit with a sense of nostalgia. Here I was, two day before going home, and I was homesick! The pit sunk deep into my stomach as I continued to shiver, staring up at the summit of Timp. I didn't understand. And then in my mind, I saw this image:

I took this picture my first day in Ushuaia, Argentina, at the bottom of the world. With my mouth gaping open, I contued to pull the camera trigger, not being able to get over where I really was...

It felt liked someone else's dream, a reality I never EVER saw myself in. But after 8 months of entering its warm homes, laughing and crying with its people, and breathing in its cool arctic air every morning, it became home.

When people ask me about my mission, my mind can't help but drift to this small, Argentine island town, surrounded by white majestic Andean mountains and crystal clear blue arctic water. That pit comes into my stomach just writing about it. Tony Bennett sings:

The loveliness of Paris
Seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome
Is of another day
I've been terribly alone
And forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home to my city by the bay.

I left my heart in Ushuaia.