Thunderstorms

A year and a few days ago, there was a thunderstorm just like the one that is happening tonight in my home skies. The sky lit up with violet webs of lightning that danced through the clouds. Big, fat raindrops poured out of the sky and quickly soaked the hot pavement and anyone standing outside.

It was my last night home. The next day, I was getting on a plane that would lead me to New York for the night and then to South Africa the day after; I was about to embark on my most epic adventure to date.

And I was miserable. My dad decided to pick huge fight with me. My mother was sick and going to have major surgery in the morning. We didn't know whether the giant mass in one of her failing kidneys was cancer or not. I still hadn't packed. After a stressful couple of months of taking care of her all by myself, all I wanted was to spend one last night with him, but my dad didn't approve. He was angry. I was hysterical.

I don't know what I would've done if he hadn't offered to throw all of my unpacked stuff in his truck (we had to move it inside our respective cars as the rain kept pouring down) and let me cry and pack and repack at his house. If his mother hadn't quietly given her approval as she saw my puffy red eyes and sopping clothes while I sniffled out apologies and words of gratitude. If I hadn't spent the past few weeks sleeping on his couch so I wouldn't have to go back to my empty house after working for eight hours then seeing my mother in the hospital. If his mother hadn't let me cook dinner with her night after night and talk about simple things like vegetables and flowers and the best way to prepare fish. If he hadn't had been the last thing I saw after I packed all the stupid clothes that I wouldn't need into my giant bags and passed out for a couple hours in the heat of Mid-July. If he hadn't said goodbye when he left for work early that morning and then let me sleep for a couple more hours.

A year ago, I started the most amazing experience of my life. But I'll never forget the crashing thunder and blinding lightning through my tear-blurred vision of the worst night of my life that started it. And I will never forget the love that got me through it.