Page 7 - Issue 29

that most of my friend group would have moved on. I
expected to still get to see some of them, if not all, but I
expected our lives to have drifted further apart. I didn't
think I'd return to the US until at the very least a year
and a half later.

On May 5th, 2021, less than six months after I arrived at
my new home, my Aunt Shocky died of ovarian cancer.
I booked a flight to Chicago so that I could be there for
my mom and go with her to Shocky's Celebration of
Life in Anchorage, Alaska.

I saw most of my friends and family much sooner than I
had assumed. Contrary to what I was expecting to find
on my first visit back, very little had changed. Most
everyone was still doing exactly what they'd been doing
when I'd left. My friends were still meeting up every