Pennsylvania Summer

That summer evening the air was just how I like it. Breezy, cool. It had just rained. It was evening and the sun was setting. On the side of the farm the sky was yellow, blue, pink…another summer sunset in Pennsylvania. “Not too many more of these” I thought to myself. I stood in the air and let it surround me. I closed my blue eyes and felt the breeze whisper over my pale skin. My skin bristled as it felt the chill of the damp evening air. It smelled like summer rain. It smelled like freshness. A fresh start. I opened my eyes and looked around, nostalgically. This is my home. This is where I had my first kiss, where I learned to drive, where I toiled in my “teen angst” and had my first heartbreak. This is where I went off to college, where I learned and matured. And this is where I am leaving. Leaving the air that I know so well. The people I have grown to love. Off on another adventure. I heard Him then like a bird miles off, song trailing in the wind. Inaudible but penetrating my heart. “You have yourself now. You have your independence. Fall into it”. I felt no confusion, no resistance. I knew what it meant. It meant this time was mine. To explore, to try life, to succeed or fail of my own accord. To cut my hair, dye my hair, get a tattoo, buy a car, and paint the walls of my (imaginary) house any color I wanted. This was the life I fought for as a teenager. And now, standing barefoot in the wet grass it took everything in me not to run away.