The duodenum line hit unexpectedly hard. There's something about locating emotional distress in a specific organ that makes it visceral in a way abstract dread can't match. I've done a similar move (though without a kid), and that sensation of leaving behind frozen temporal friezes is realy precise. The personification of Sadness and Anxiety as visiting ghosts works well here, but the shift to recognizing the third ghost as embodied in the daughter's future is where this piece transcends the typical relocation essay. Its less about leaving dreams behind than realizing they've just changed address.
Thank you! That line was very much a visceral translation of what I felt. This whole piece is, to be honest. Writing it all down helped me find a situational calm of sorts.
And you're right about how dreams have only changed address. What I wanted to convey was how, with my daughter becoming the focal point of our lives, my dreams will be taking a backseat. And I'm comfortable with that. Only the memories of what birthed and shaped those dreams are now ghosts of a city I left behind.
The duodenum line hit unexpectedly hard. There's something about locating emotional distress in a specific organ that makes it visceral in a way abstract dread can't match. I've done a similar move (though without a kid), and that sensation of leaving behind frozen temporal friezes is realy precise. The personification of Sadness and Anxiety as visiting ghosts works well here, but the shift to recognizing the third ghost as embodied in the daughter's future is where this piece transcends the typical relocation essay. Its less about leaving dreams behind than realizing they've just changed address.
Thank you! That line was very much a visceral translation of what I felt. This whole piece is, to be honest. Writing it all down helped me find a situational calm of sorts.
And you're right about how dreams have only changed address. What I wanted to convey was how, with my daughter becoming the focal point of our lives, my dreams will be taking a backseat. And I'm comfortable with that. Only the memories of what birthed and shaped those dreams are now ghosts of a city I left behind.
Beautiful, nostalgic, bittersweet, depressing. A wonderful piece.
Give it time and take your learnings. Change is the only constant, if it's not the place it's the people around us that change