All the little things
Was it the weather?
Am I spending too much time at university?
Whichever it was, I had strange feeling wandering through the park the other day.
It is my single favourite short-cut between campuses, and I was commiserating about the influence of scents on emotions.
Isn't it strange how the smell of roses mixed with enticing savoury aroma of a nearby cafe make me think back to the wedding of my uncle, and therefore create happy feelings? I have these trains of thought quite often, whn something I sense reminds me of times long gone, or people I know so well, such as this one cafe that has some sweet musky aroma that makes me think of my grandparents' house every single time.
I'm sure it is not just me right?.....
TO cut that ramble short, while observing the trees, the sky, I had this sensation that I knew this place like the back of my hand.....
It felt like home (not that I sleep in the park, just so you know), and it was simultaneously as though I was extra comfortable with my own identity.
(I snapped an android phone picture to commemorate the moment...)
Is this something that happens to you? Any random place you go and feel safe and sound for no known reason?
Being an immigrant to New Zealand, there aren't many places I feel this sense of belonging. The safety of my grandparents white brick house with the straw roof, the forests and sports-fields where I lived, all those places I grew up are across the world in The Netherlands. It's been 11 years since the Big Move, which occured thanks to my mother's parents, who took a wee holiday to New Zealand, and came back with tourism tapes (remember when vhs tapes were the way to watch films?) waxing poetic about rainforests, mountains and natural springs. Awoke the spark of ancestral pioneering in our European hearts, and next thing I know, my dad finds a job, and we have booked flights and our worldly possesions vanish into boxes. I have created new ties: to our neighbourhood, my primary school, but I still miss that sense of community we had, when I knew most people in the 'hood, and would drop by any of my friends who lived in a 2 km radius (3rd most densely populated country whoop whoop!)
The change of pace has been good though: bilinguilism rocks! I have friends I would not trade for the world; I have a cat who is basically my baby; and above all if I need a break, the ocean calls from across the road.
No complaints, no regrets.
The main question: Have you ever uprooted yourself, left behind everything you knew? Have you made new connections, started writing a new story?
Am I spending too much time at university?
Whichever it was, I had strange feeling wandering through the park the other day.
It is my single favourite short-cut between campuses, and I was commiserating about the influence of scents on emotions.
Isn't it strange how the smell of roses mixed with enticing savoury aroma of a nearby cafe make me think back to the wedding of my uncle, and therefore create happy feelings? I have these trains of thought quite often, whn something I sense reminds me of times long gone, or people I know so well, such as this one cafe that has some sweet musky aroma that makes me think of my grandparents' house every single time.
I'm sure it is not just me right?.....
TO cut that ramble short, while observing the trees, the sky, I had this sensation that I knew this place like the back of my hand.....
It felt like home (not that I sleep in the park, just so you know), and it was simultaneously as though I was extra comfortable with my own identity.
Is this something that happens to you? Any random place you go and feel safe and sound for no known reason?
Being an immigrant to New Zealand, there aren't many places I feel this sense of belonging. The safety of my grandparents white brick house with the straw roof, the forests and sports-fields where I lived, all those places I grew up are across the world in The Netherlands. It's been 11 years since the Big Move, which occured thanks to my mother's parents, who took a wee holiday to New Zealand, and came back with tourism tapes (remember when vhs tapes were the way to watch films?) waxing poetic about rainforests, mountains and natural springs. Awoke the spark of ancestral pioneering in our European hearts, and next thing I know, my dad finds a job, and we have booked flights and our worldly possesions vanish into boxes. I have created new ties: to our neighbourhood, my primary school, but I still miss that sense of community we had, when I knew most people in the 'hood, and would drop by any of my friends who lived in a 2 km radius (3rd most densely populated country whoop whoop!)
The change of pace has been good though: bilinguilism rocks! I have friends I would not trade for the world; I have a cat who is basically my baby; and above all if I need a break, the ocean calls from across the road.
No complaints, no regrets.
The main question: Have you ever uprooted yourself, left behind everything you knew? Have you made new connections, started writing a new story?
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