Leaving Malaga.

I’m writing this as I’m flying away from a wonderful place and ending a wonderful 9 months living in Malaga, Spain.

To sum up the experience briefly would be impossible.   I have had such great fortune this year between the people I’ve met, the places I’ve traveled, and the city I lived.   I know that I am truly blessed.

My school this year was awash with wonderful, kind teachers and students that embraced me and made me feel a part of the team. 

My roommates were both beautiful, intelligent, ambitious women which made the entire year exciting and spontaneous.  I’m eternally grateful that they put up with me and my particularities.  They also introduced me to other amazing women that became such an integral part of my Malaga memories.  Our routine family dinners made this year a communal experience, which made it all the more valuable.

I met amazing Malagueños this year, who were some of the most kind and generous people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.   Veronica will forever be part of my most precious memories of Malaga, and I hope that one day I can show her my home as she has shown me hers.

This year I traveled more than ever and witnessed some of the most iconic places in the world.  I made it to over 10 countries, countless cities, and still returned to many of the places I love most here in Spain. 

Malaga became the place of my fantasies.  Every day was a new discovery and breathtaking moment.  I will never forget the way Calle Larios looks at night, the chiming of the cathedral bells through the open terrace doors of our apartment that ushered in a cool sea breeze, and my morning runs on the dark beach sand of the Malagueta and finally catching my breath at the stone steps of the Roman Theater.  Every day was absolutely surreal.

I could have never anticipated it being so hard to leave this year.  The last days have been a roller coaster of emotions, between parties and goodbyes.  Last evening, after dinner I was walking through the city one last time.  As I came upon the cathedral steps a man was playing flamenco guitar on the other side.  I couldn’t have envisioned a more perfect moment if I had tried.

This place is too beautiful to be pushed into the corners of my memory.  It deserves a place as special as it is.  It needs to be at the forefront of my thought, just behind my eyes, forever filtering my world through the high standard of pure joy and beauty that it has become to me.  It will forever be a home to which I will always be drawn.