Long Way from Home

2- Greece

     The salty spray whipped Luna's face as she leaned over the rail, staring down into the black ocean. The dull sound of music echoed from the room behind her, the flashing colors creating patterns across the deck. Her mind wandered to her ex, and she felt the  dull ache in her heart intensify. The thought of moving on was almost as scary as never moving on. He was all she had ever really known.

They had started dating her senior year, and the on-off roller coaster had carried through up until six months ago. She had seen him once or twice since, but she had made herself a promise right before she left to study abroad. In a year, she didn't want to feel the same ache, the same heartbreak. She had felt it for so long. It was hard to explain to people how she felt, how she believed they would end up together. It was like a magnet, they were always being pulled back together. But he had hurt her so much, and in her efforts to move on she was firmly reminding herself of the bad whenever she remembered the good. She needed to be alone, fully okay with who she was. Over the past summer she had started with this friends, but she had a feeling that this semester would be special. She wasn't sure how, but she felt something big coming, something that would change her. 

She finally felt whole again on her own. She had never felt so much like herself, or so alive. Slightly intoxicated but mostly just on the night of dancing and singing with her friends as they dominated the dance floor, she knew she had come home to herself once again. And good riddance, she thought, no more homes in others.

Gazing out over the dark water, she felt free. I am on the precipice of a cliff, she thought to herself. Am I going to fly or fall? 

"I will never be the same again," she whispered out loud, only the dark water hearing her. While it was only the beginning of the semester, she already felt renewed. They had only been together for a week, but she felt that the new friends were different, maybe kinder or more genuine. The experience they were sharing together was unique to them, in this moment. And not only that, but her best friend was studying in Spain with her too. She felt sad Violet couldn't come on the trip with them, but since she was in a different program she couldn't go on any of the trips with Luna. But it was okay, they were still going to travel together. She felt a thrill of excitement at the adventures her and Violet would have. After dreaming about this together, they were finally there. She made a mental note to text Violet in the morning about the boat and the new friends she made. 

She sighed in contentment. Her birthday was in three days, and for the first time in her life, she felt like she was exactly where she was meant to be. Like every moment in her life had led up to this exact moment. She breathed in deeply, inhaling the muggy but sweet air of Greece. She still couldn't believe she was here. Since she was young, pinning the map above her bed, pointing at random to different countries and cities, she had felt the yearning to travel, to see the world. Some thought it was because she grew  up in a small town, but Luna knew deep down the desire to learn and travel was from her curiosity.

Curiosity killed the cat, they had always told her, a play on her last name. Ha! But didn't they know, cats have nine lives? She shivered, despite the warm breeze, the same feeling of incoming she had experienced on the flight to Greece. Whatever was coming, was coming soon.

She brushed aside the thoughts with a flick of her hair, and squinted to see the islands far ahead in the dying light. The history in these waters, she thought to herself. What a miracle of human ingenuity that I am standing here on this boat thinking these thoughts. The birth of democracy, the ancient Greek myths and tales that she had loved so much. She thought of her sisters and family and wondered what they were doing. They felt so far, like another world. Certainly not this one, one with mountains rising straight out of the water with rocky hills and olive trees everywhere you look. It seemed so at odds with the green, leafy forest she left behind. Glancing up at her namesake, sitting huge and bright in the night sky, she inhaled once more, closing her eyes, and listened to the wind.