A Yearnful Cry for the West

 

    As I remain here, stuck in a rut of my own creation, my own lack of motivation, my yearning for the open skies and the vast freedom of the American Southwest that I read so much about grows, my only respite from this feeling of stuckness being the books I read and the photos I see online. But alas, the words of McCandless, and Ruess, and Kerouac, and Muir, and Grant, and the like can only subside my feeling for taking off to that open skied wonderland so much. I need to see it for my own, lay my own two God given eyes upon that sacred orange land, those Heavenly hues of purples and reds, pinks and blues, turquoise and viridian cast upon it's dusking and dawning skies. I need, with every fiber of my being, with every ounce of my essence, with everything that I am, body, mind, and soul, see the West, the Southwest in particular.           

    Growing up in Georgia, I was 21 before I had the opportunity to travel anywhere of note, save for a trip to Mississippi when I was 6 or so (I have since revisited several times). In 2022 I had the great privilege to travel to Virginia for a friend's wedding and have since returned numerous times. In those visits I had the chance to visit several other states including North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. In early 2024, in the wake of my mother's cancer diagnosis, a family trip was taken to Tennessee, a state I have visited twice. These trips, I thought, would satiate a great portion of my wanderlust, and while it was amazing and did somewhat, it only enhanced my want, my need, my urge and yearning for it. But there is something about the West and Southwest that calls to me, just as it did many men before me.

    In my 24 years of life, I have only known the East, and while it is my home and I love it dearly, I yearn for more. The trees and the mountains only seem to give me a sense of claustrophobia, which only adds to that stuck feeling I seem to carry always. Maybe that is part of the reason I want to go West, out into the open country. I dream to look up into an unobstructed night time sky, free of light pollution, its stars shining the brightest I have ever seen, all around me, the colors engulfing the world, my world, my vision and my heart. I crave it, my longing for it is immeasurable, I absolutely without a doubt, unequivocally need it. I will set out for it, or die trying.

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