You and Me

You only begin to understand who you are once you remove yourself from your home

When the world outside your window stops being predictable

And even the road signs are new

They warn of falling rocks and flooded highways

The familiar highways and turns are long gone

The Country opens up when you go out West

Speeding down a highway, you play music and sing out loud,

Eyes wide as you try to take it all in and commit it to memory

Predicting the days that you will tell children with familiar eyes, noses, and perhaps a constellations of freckles about the days when you too were young and curious anxious to see everything

Suddenly you are recalling terms from 7th grade Geography class because they are hovering in the distance and looming around every bend

You take a friend and have to re-learn each other

Because this is not the same friendship you had at school and in the city

You are sharing a space and often sharing silences

You are singing together and making decisions

Weighing smart decisions against the craving for an adventure

Framing how you will tell the stories to your friends and wondering which details you will remember differently

One is looking out to the desert and the other watching the sky

But this You is not You

It is me.

You can watch the Road trip movies and read the books

You can read this poem and ask me about it later

But until you get on the road

Until you watch the mountains leap up and marvel that the GPS is telling you not to turn for another 500 miles

Until you understand that this part of the world is older than you can imagine

You cannot know how you will feel

If you will feel small and young or scared and insignificant

Maybe you will feel powerful and proud of the roads sandwiched between cliffs and cactuses

I am in awe of this country

I am young and my eyes are open

I am seeing a new world and I will bring it home with me

I will share it with you and remind you repeatedly that it is here

Waiting for you

That we may build skyscrapers to feel strong and bold, but the mountains were here first and they will be here after

and they will change you if you let them.