We’re in Hawaii. It’s hard to say that
without sounding like I’m bragging, but there it is. A simple fact.
We packed our belongings, moved some
into storage, and gave the rest away. That last month was hectic and at times overwhelming
and two days before we said goodbye to Indianapolis I could barely get out of
bed, the weight of my stress crushing me.
But I needn’t write about this. Anyone
who has moved before knows what it’s like, the cornucopic list of things to do
that never gets shorter, no matter how many tasks you cross off.
Perhaps the only difference is that
instead of moving to a different city or state, we’re going halfway around the
world. To Malaysia. ‘Why Malaysia?’ everyone seems to wonder. Well, F has a job
and I have one lined up, but that’s not the reason we’re going; it’s the reason
we are able to go. The reason we’re
moving to Malaysia is simpler and more intangible.
We are going because I am spoiled and I
get everything I want.
I told F on our first date
(rollerblading a converted rail trail in Indianapolis. I went for a handshake
greeting and he went for a hug. I thought, ‘Yeah, I would sleep with him’) that
I wasn’t done traveling, but that I was tired after nearly four years of
traveling alone. I wanted an adventure companion and I wanted, instead of
spending days or weeks in a place, to settle into a city for a year or two,
find a home base. I wanted to travel like a serial monogamist, hopping from one
major city to the next, making a home in each one.
And now, less than two years since that
first date, I have my adventure companion and we are moving to a new country.
I’ve spent a week total in Kuala Lumpur and F has never set foot in Malaysia.
But this is our new home.
So after a month of packing we are in
transit in Hawaii, invited by my parents, all our belongings packed in our
bags. And there’s no way to talk about Hawaii without bragging. The weather is
perfect. Perfect. Never hot, never cold. We leave the windows open all day and
night. The water is clear and warm. We snorkel in the ocean, a giant aquarium,
with fish of every color and lackadaisical sea turtles. We have fruit for
breakfast every morning—speckled sweet dragonfruit, pink-orange papaya,
succulent pineapple.
I could go on. But I won’t, because who
wants to read about perfection?
So instead I’ll tell you something I’m
worried about. Though F signed his contract with the university he will teach
at, and should begin in mid-January, he still doesn’t have the plane ticket
they are supposed to provide. And we don’t know where we’ll be living. The
university has been slow to respond on both fronts and it has me worried.
There are deeper worries too. Will F
like his new job? Will the university try to censor his lectures, censor the
work he can show or his students can create?
Malaysia is a Muslim country, though
with lots of ethnic diversity, but we’ve heard rumblings of a strict government
and rapidly increasing violence in the capital city. Worrisome.
Can I talk about Hawaii again? Because
perfection, though boring, doesn’t worry me at all.
