I’m not in Omaha anymore. When I drove
out of town last May, I drove, and drove determined to put as many miles as
possible between that place and myself in one day. 800 miles later,
blurry-eyed, thrilled, I stopped in Rock Springs, Wyoming for the night.
Being back out west is a dream. I love
the west. It’s a lot more densely populated than the spaces that stretch from Rock
Springs, WY to Omaha, NE. But out west is where I belong. I can breathe. It
seems the spaces in the Midwest are vast. But in my experience, the space to be
fully human was small, and cramped. I did cross paths with some wonderful
people. And they were the kind of people that give the Midwest its good name. But
there were those experiences that were beyond the absurd. And it is only now
that I’m feeling that my experience of Midwest oppression is becoming more and
more distant. In a year or two, it will all be nothing but dust.
So, I still do carry some anger. Who
wouldn’t after completely changing your life, and then having to put up with some
really stupid, unnecessary situations? But, I am beginning to talk as if I can
now. Freedom is sweet. And I am turning that anger into a determination to be
the human being I choose to be. I don’t want to be an angry, bitter person. My
life even before Omaha could have turned me that way. But, no. Screw that. I
want to be that soft, compassionate, but stronger than anyone thinks kind of
person. Of course, it’s not always so easy to be that way out west either. But
I don’t care. I will, “to thine ownself be true.”
So after some re-entry adjustments, I
have a job as a cardiovascular sonographer, my stuff is out of storage, and
either donated to the Goodwill, or with me, and I have a cat. Somehow I have inherited
a cat along the way.
