525,600 minutes

I'm interrupting your regularly scheduled travelogues to mark time. I'd be remiss if I did not point out that a year ago today, June 25, at approximately 9 AM EST, I walked away from Tucson. In actuality, I drove, but it was a true walking away. I walked away from a love that was no good for me and a social circle that, for reasons I still cannot fully explain, had become incredibly toxic. I walked away from a house and town I loved, and a ring of mountains that still take my breath away when I look at them in pictures. I walked away from the best decision, even considering all the last minute heartbreak, I'd probably ever made in my adult life, diploma in hand, having accomplished what I moved there to do and so much more.

I am happier now than I was then, maybe happier than I could have ever hoped to be there, despite how painful and heartwrenching it was for me to leave. Still, a year here and I have come to appreciate this little town and its quirks. I am good at my job, and am recognized for being good at it on a regular basis. I have made some truly fantastic and wonderful friends here. I feel loved by them, and my friends and family elsewhere, in ways that I never appreciated until I learned to open myself up to small town rhythms. I am growing and cultivating myself in ways I could not seem to discover in Tucson.

Really and truly, I hope I never forget how fortunate and blessed and just plain lucky I feel on this day to be in this place, at this place, in my life.