I never got that before. I had never been west of Dallas. We’re driving somewhere a few hours out of El Paso, 8 hours strong on the road since Phoenix. Twilight is beginning to set. Ahead the sky is purple and cobalt. When I look back I see a burst of gold and orange. Above each is a mass of blue-gray, not a cloud in sight. When I turn to my left, too far to comprehend, the two halves meet on the horizon. The sky melds together in an impossible blend of contradicting colors. It is Infiniti, more than the mind can comprehend. The desert stretches forever, beneath an unimaginable sky. On and on into an unforseeable landscape, a future unknown. My life, unknown.

A coworker next to me begins to ask about South Carolina. From Pennsylvania, he has been thinking about buying land and moving to my state. I tell him it’s beautiful. The coast, the mountains, the forests in the north and the swamps down in lowcountry. South Carolina is a place to settle down, a place to find a home. South Carolina is where I found my home. It dawns in me now what Columbia means. Columbia will always be my home; it will always be my heart. Columbia will always be there.

This job is really just another job. It could be one of the best I ever have or it could just as easily as be another blip on the former job radar. But for now it is an opportunity. My opportunity to have an experience. I may not travel everywhere, but I am travelling. I will see places and learn things and take chances. I will meet someone new everyday. I will wander and wonder.
And eventually, I will return home. I will go back to my Columbia and my soul will be at ease. I know now that I can always have these experiences, even if I have to make them for myself. I just have to look outside the box my heart has created and see the sky that stretches forever. I have to follow that sky wherever it takes me.

The windows are an inky black. I light a cigarette and look out. Up into the sky as far as I can see. I thought I missed the stars. Now I realize I had never seen them.