Sigh

So today I got to walk the streets of "my" town again. With my two friends. What a day. Coming back here is the strangest thing... I really, strongly disliked living in this country for many reasons. It is... repressive, in some ways. Coming here though, I realize that there are things I miss. I miss walking down narrow streets of shabby buildings, backed by green, rolling hills and clouds. I miss the ability to go where I want, when I want. But what surprised me most of all about today was that walking down the streets with my two good friends was like a sort of mental and emotional sigh. I could relax. Things had not changed. I knew what was what and how to handle the things that came my way because, well, I'd been working on it for years. All of those little cultural tidbits that I worked so hard to master came back to me in an instant, like a ring that you've had forever and a day. Of course, that's not to say that my two friends had stood still in time. Oh no. Their relationship has changed slightly, towards eachother and slightly towards me. But not enough to throw us off kilter. It was nice- instead of fighting for my place in someone's conversations to find that they'd kept it open for me, at least over this little while.
So that is my sigh tonight. May your friends be true and loyal. May they last through your darkest trial. May you always have a place to come back to, if only for a while.