The Sadness of Bags. The sadness of not knowing if you have packed enough, or the right things. The sadness of struggling to close your luggage. The sadness that all you need can be reduced to something that can be carried. The sadness of aching muscles after carrying your life around for too long. The sadness that too long is not long enough. The sadness of forgetting something important.
The Sadness of Absence. The sadness of not being ready to leave. The sadness of saying goodbye. The sadness of opportunities missed by being elsewhere. Sadness that things will have changed when you get back. Sadness that nothing will have changed when you get back. The sadness that you will be back before you are ready. The sadness of remembering the past. The sadness of forgetting the past.
Flying Sadness. The sadness of waiting to board an aeroplane. The sadness that taking off is never as ecstatic as you might have hoped. The sadness that, somewhere deep down, you know that flying belongs exclusively to the world of dreams. The sadness that the food will never fill you up, because food is not what you want. The sadness of wanting to be drunk. The sadness that the plane will land. The sadness that you cannot climb out and roll about in the clouds or hold them in your hands. The sadness of distance.
Objective Sadness. The sadness of not achieving what you set out to do. The sadness of achieving what you set out to do and not being satisfied. The sadness of having chosen the wrong thing. The sadness of forgetting what you wanted.
Home Sadness. The sadness that it couldn’t last longer. The sadness of knowing that whatever you experience it will never be as important to anyone else as it is to you. The sadness that love is not as good as travelling. The sadness that travelling is not as good as love. The sadness that not to travel can be just as rich an adventure as a voyage around the world. The sadness that remembering will always remind you of a better time, that life is short, and we do not always spend it doing the most wonderful things, or with the most wonderful people.
