I can still remember what my parents said when I told them that I wanted to go to school in North Dakota. My father, being the one always lax on words, told me as long as I called, he didn't care if I stayed in Australia, moved to North Dakota or I even moved to Europe, but as long as I called it wouldn't matter. My mother on the other hand was not so supportive. She had once lived in Nodakland and saw it as the most horrible time in her life. She told me, no son of hers was going to live in any state that started with a "north" or a "south" in the state name.
Fine by me, I never planned on living here. I actually hated my first semester to the point I thought of moving half way around the world again. But time and friends change a lot of things.
I never really once questioned my faith in moving here to North Dakota. Yeah, it's not the most open place in the world. The summers are full of storms. The winters are harsher than any other place on the Earth. The people lack a certain, well, they tend to be very cliquish here. And well the scenery isn't much to jump for joy over.
But every night when I am out doing the normal jog, while Ryan and Mike trot just up a head. I have time to reflect. The sun just settting at 10pm. The dusk nights lasting well past that. I swear I can see the sun setting hundreds of miles away on the horizon. The pure mixing of fire colored reds, bright oranges, and those amazingly brilliant yellows. Things here are much more simiple. No one is in a huge rush. Please and Thank-yous are far more common.
When my parents come up in August to help move up my bedroom things, it will be my mother's first trip back to the state she so loathes. She didn't want to come in the first place but I gave her that look, that look in which every mother knows. Her son wants her to see him on his own. I know it's hard for her. Knowing that both of her sons are no longer dependent on her; no longer living at home. She won't have those dishes in the sink to complain about yet secretly likes putting them away because it gives her some time to just sit and listen to her son's day. She won't have to do the laundry anymore. She won't get to fold the clothes, remembering the story behind the ripped blue shirt and could double as a wash cloth but never willing to part with.
I think that part scares her. I never told her, nor have I told anyone to the fact, before I left Australia, I applied for a longer VISA and with that application, I also applied to Macquaire University. I was granted a longer stay in the country. But I never opened that letter from Mac Uni. Whether I be afraid of some sort of disappointment or whether I was afraid of what it might bring or whether that letter would have haunted me and my decision to come here to this university.
I would like to say that the letter was opened the other day because I needed to know. I KNOW I made the correct decision in coming to North Dakota. I wouldn't trade anything in the world for what I have here. There is nothing better than a family of friends that you can count on, that you can share with, that you can be open with and not for one moment be judged.
And that's my senimental moment for the month..... the "straight" boy drama returns shortly
BTW: I was accepted.
