Three
Some mornings, I wake up with a monster on my chest. The monster’s name is Despair, and it enjoys cutting off my breath and making my brain foggy. It’s the kind of monster whose favourite game is seeing how long it can keep me in bed, making my blood sluggish and dragging me back into the oblivion of sleep, then giving me anxious dreams. I have taken to texting my friends updates about Despair. “Despair nowhere in sight today.” “Despair is back, let’s meet at the library because I need to get out of my house.” The thing that no one told me about leaving my home country is that, even if it’s all you’ve ever wanted, it’s a hard process. When I moved to Santa Fe, I was lonely and questioned everything for several months after the move. This move, I am so much further from home and therefore it is much more difficult to retreat back to family for a quiet and love-filled weekend. I am also discovering numerous unexpected cultural nuances which are taking much longer to adjust to than I thou...
