Yesterday began with an early awakening by my flatmates and a lot of café con leche before we got ready to take the train up to the mountains. The vigorous hike up took a toll on me and my very weak knees and I swore I almost regretted it, but my entire mindset changed when we got up there. I am thankful for my new friends and for their encouragement and positivity. I am thankful for the long, scenic walks, the cold air, the solitude and sense of community all at once, the architecture, and the culture. I have been drowning in the way this city makes me feel at times, often lonely and scared but almost always fulfilled. This adventure was one of the most memorable ones so far; as I hiked breathlessly upward towards the highest peak of the mountain, on the foggy trail following closely behind groups of Spanish families and kids and travelers carrying yoga mats and backpacks, stopping every few steps to photograph the beautiful views, I felt my mood and thought-process shift. When we got to the top and the mountains enveloped me and the fog disappeared I was on top of the world, and I was watching it from where I was standing. On the train ride back, my flatmates and I bonded over life and love and everything in between. It has been a great journey so far.
The thing that most people don't tell you about traveling is that it does get lonely, even when you're surrounded by hundreds of people. But I don't necessarily think that the loneliness comes from being in a new place entirely, but feeling like you don't have a permanent place to return to. As I sit outside on the balcony of our spacious new flat in the center of the city, and look up at the high brick-walled ceilings and the Barcelona night lights, I think about what my life might look like a few years down the road and what it has been before all of this, and how easy and hard it is to adapt to a new way of life. If there is anything I've learned in the last few years of my life, it's that everything is temporary, and I want to experience all that I can while I can.
I want the mountains and the ocean and the city and the people and the quiet and the chaos, too. Although I don't know where life will eventually take me, or who I will be there, or who will go with me, I hope it's where I am meant to be.
But for now, it's all right there in front of you. Reach out and take it.
