It's been over a year since I've been home to Prince Edward Island. A year. It hasn't felt like that long because I spent Christmas in New Brunswick with my sisters and their families and my mother so it's only been 7 months since I've seen my family. But a year since visiting PEI? What that really means is that it's been a year since I've seen the open ocean. For someone that spent a good chunk of their including every summer up until the summer of 2002 living on an island that's a long, long time to go without seeing the ocean. Thinking about it almost makes me feel claustrophobic. When that happens I'm reminded of a guy I met in grad school in North Carolina. Not long after I moved down there I met a bunch of people through a church group and went hiking with them in Pilot Mountain State Park. When we got to the top of Pilot Mountain (which is probably only 1000 feet high or so) we looked around in all directions. Something about it felt really weird but I couldn't put my finger on it until this guy, who was from Hawaii, nailed it.
"Where's the ocean? Why can't I see any water?"
We were 7 hours inland from the North Carolina coast. At that point in my life it was probably the farthest I'd ever been from a major body of water and it was an extremely unsettling feeling.
Thankfully I have a trip home planned for the week before Labour Day and my sister and her family are renting a cottage on the Argyle Shore. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to it.
Most of us normal people have this feeling when we're out on a boat and can't see land. :)
Posted by: Rooster | July 27, 2005 at 07:54 PM