I’m too tired to write an intro as I’m doing this at 10:40pm after a travel day that started at 6, but here are the 10 phases of arriving back in Toronto from Mexico:

  1. When the wheels go up, you start to feel the finality of your trip – no matter how amazing, or how bizarre, or how trying it was (because it’s genuinely different every time) – back to reality you’re going.
  2. Going through customs and getting your bags, you’re grateful to be home.
  3. When you pee at Pearson, you accidentally throw your toilet paper in the garbage.
  4. Walking outside for the first time hits you like a slap in the face – it’s Toronto’s way of saying HEY! WAKE UP! YOU’RE HOME!
  5. The feeling you get when you get to your house is like something from your childhood – you can’t really describe it, but I know we’ve all had it.
  6. You open your luggage to get out all your cosmetics and to make sure none of your precious liquids have runneth over – the smell of humidity escapes from your suitcase. You wonder how the hell you didn’t  smell this smell while you were there.
  7. You get in the shower.
  8. The water heats up unexpectedly fast. It startles you; but the water pressure makes you forget.
  9. Best shower ever. You almost don’t open your mouth though… But then you do, and the water is clean and you’re home.
  10. But then you get out and you’re cold and your mosquito bites are itchy AND your newly dry skin is itchy and you can’t find your favourite socks and your wet hair is freezing and you remember you haven’t used a hair dryer in 3 weeks and you think – oh Mexico, you kind of kicked my ass… but something in me knows; I’ll be back.


I’ve met a lot of my dearest friends in Mexico over the past 13 years. I met my boyfriend/life partner/the #rebelpapa there, and it’s actually where Aleks and I really hung out for the first time – 6 years ago.

It’s a place that has become a part of me and when bad things happen there, it hurts me in a way that feels really personal.

But now I’m back home in Toronto – feeling grateful to be here and feeling a bit shaken over what has happened in the Yucatan over the past few days.

Today all I’m hoping is that everyone involved has lots of support around them and that they know how many people around the world are thinking about them.

xx

N.

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