Such a fresh smell, big windows, roomy place and happy faces: this was the setting of that weird, memorable morning.

I love airports. Everybody is happy to leave for a relaxing trip or to come back home to friends and family. Instead all the expectations, I was not happy that morning at the airport. I was not ready to leave for a magic experience. I was not ready to say “Ciao, see you in 10 months!”.

“Will you miss your family?” people had used to ask me during the previous summer. I had probably answered all the time saying the same exact thing: “yes of course, but I’m gonna be fine! I’m get used to it. It’s just 10 months”. I had used to repeat it to people (as a learnt-by-heart poem), partly because I had strongly believed in it and partly because that reality had been really scary to my eyes.

Motivation, excitement and tons of good reasons are not always enough to face a goodbye-like type of situation.
Minute after minute, step by step I was getting closer to the gate of my flight and to the hardly-unwanted moment.

It eventually came, at first slowly and then all at once. I turned to my parents and my brain was empty of words and full of thoughts. What to say? Where to start?

I forgot what I’d actually said that time, but I remember the never-ending big hugs. They tasted like love and tears. That day, hugging my parents, I finally realized how much I love them. It’s nothing just based on family ties. I am deeply proud of them. I owe them everything I know today. Bye dad and mom!! This is not a goodbye. You’re coming with me. I won’t leave you behind!

Photo credit: Girl at the plane