A Quiet Place

This week ushered in the beginning of the end of my senior year. Scary to think that I have one semester left after this. Midterms have piled up and stress levels are of course, higher than usual. But this weekend I found myself missing my quiet places. Alone time. I was craving a dusk walk through the orange groves on Kibbutz Na'an. or a stroll along the Nile. Oddly enough, I felt unsafe walking around Gainesville at dusk by myself. Though abroad, walking by myself was not exactly a concern. Maybe it is the 'carpe diem' mentality I choose to live by whilst abroad, but enjoying the simplicity of life, alone time and nature is what I miss most. I miss choosing to walk along the shore because it's beautiful and it's sunset.
Even in quaint little Gainesville, I constantly check my over my shoulder when running down the back trails of Gainesville by myself, or am hyper-vigilant of cars driving by. Shootings from cars, kidnappings and rape are scary realities here that are so much less of an issue, and so much less prevalent in the Middle East. I found it rather ironic that I was scared to take a walk by myself when I craved some me time around sunset on Saturday. I couldn't even ride my bike and be alone on campus because I don't have a bike light, and that is illegal in Gainesville after dusk.
Sauntering through the vineyards and the orange groves on my Kibbutz, laying on the vast green field staring up into the moon, bright, because of a lack of city lights and thinking about the silly intricacies of life is something I need to reinvent here. Why is it that life is easier to put into perspective when you are outside of your cultural comfort zone? Why is it easier to appreciate what we have when it is least tangible to us? I may not have my blooming orchard or my moonlit Nile but I have my friends and family, which in the end, count way more.