Feels like home!
“It’s been too long,” I tell myself running up the Hogwartsesque staircase. Running, because that’s the way I always did it.
It’s been 13 years since I stopped visiting regularly. Too long. I pull open the glass door and enter the deserted office on the Sunday morning. The floor of the office has changed since my time, but not the feeling I experienced every time I came for a Voices meeting. You know, when you’re meeting a dear friend after years and you start off the conversation as if you’re just back from a loo break?
I see the friendly bunch, amidst them the editor, the ever-reliable bond who keeps the Voices family together. It’s a happy reunion. Warm and fuzzy. Was that a hint of a knot in the throat?
I realise no one I know is here. But I am not alone. There are others who were coordinators before my time and who don’t know anyone here as well. It doesn’t take long to bond, even though I don’t have the best social skills, especially not the ones on starting conversations.
Looking around, I find the scenario hasn’t changed much over the years. The newest member of the family – quiet and uncertain, sitting alone.
The older ones chatting, laughing, dancing even. In the end. someone goes over the new guy and says, “Come, sit with us!”
Someone sings, and the others join in spontaneously.
We munch on chips, happily share tiny pieces of cake, share stories. And we take pictures, yes! Lots of them! We know for sure that right then, we were making memories we would look back fondly at years later. And too soon, it was time to go. Smiles. Hugs. Selfies. See-you-soons.
As I slowly walk down the stairs, I realise a couple of hours earlier, I wasn’t just running up the steps excited to celebrate the 25th birthday of Voices.
I was running back home.