The yellow suitcase sits in the corner of my home office, a spare bedroom with a desk instead of a bed. There are still a few things in it from last summer. A black hoodie. An extra HDMI cable. A copy of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Pulphead. Right now, a laundry basket full of unfolded clothes is sitting on top of it.
For six months I’ve ignored it. Now I see it every day.
Much of the year I’m in Waco, Texas. The rest depends.
Some years it’s Colombia. Other years it’s somewhere new. Every year I stay gone a little longer. My first trip to South America was five weeks. The last was over four months.
Most mornings in Waco, I drive to the gym half a mile away. After breakfast and a second cup of coffee, I log into work. I write. Between Zoom meetings I listen to WWOZ out of New Orleans. For lunch I air fry a diced red potato and make a couple of fajita tacos from chicken I cooked over the weekend. Once a week I go to the grocery store. I don’t get out much.
And yet in two months I’ll get on a plane again to a place where I barely speak the language to set up my same routines.
I don’t leave to escape my life. I take it with me. I want to see how it holds up in a different place. Each morning, I’ll head to the gym wherever I’m staying. If there isn’t one, I take an early morning walk around unfamiliar streets. I log onto my laptop and get ready for my first Zoom meeting. At lunch or after work I walk to the nearest supermercado and decipher labels. Some nights I stop at a local cerveceria. Other nights I stay in and watch a movie.
The setting changes. The structure doesn’t. Mostly. I’m interested in where it doesn’t align.
I eat better and lose weight but my sleep becomes irregular, and often I wake in the middle of the night. Patience matters more. I hope other people will extend it to me and my work-in-progress Spanish. Talking to strangers becomes part of my day. And I want to be a good guest.
Every place wins at something. Every place gives something up. I’m a born scorekeeper, and I try to resist it.
Soon enough I’ll move the laundry basket off the yellow suitcase and fold what needs folding. The hoodie will stay inside with the cable. The book will be replaced. I’ll zip it shut. The sound is louder than I remember.
Mark Roy Long writes The Texpatriate and hosts Your Waco Weekend.
