Somewhere Else

The sun shook me awake, rolling me over before my alarm. Throwing off my too warm blankets, the first thing I grabbed was the last thing I should have.

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I started my day off looking at other people's highlights on Instagram, watching their adventures, their surface-level happiness.

Some days I just want to be somewhere else.

Today was one of those days where I couldn't, but other days when that feeling hits me I crawl out of bed and start driving. Today wasn't like that, today I crawled back beneath the sheets and slept until my alarm.

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Escape

It's not just a feeling of not being able get away from life, its a need to reactivate it.

After long weeks of non-stop stress, of not seeing the mountains, you know that it's time to go somewhere other than here.

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Some days like that just wear on you, and it doesn't matter how you count down the hours, the days until you can escape again, it still settles deep in your bones.

Spending all day thinking of somewhere else, dreaming of mountains, waterfalls, and forests without the sounds of civilization all around you, I crave to be gone more and more.

It fills you with a need to move, to disappear from your daily routine. Small bites of it after long days at work, small walks, long runs, do little to satisfy those cravings.

The world it fills you with blue in those moments, it kicks you when you're down, it shows you places you've never been and that blue is all you see. Blue is well and good when it's caressed by the soft slap of water against a shore, but green is what I crave, slipping through forests as I move towards mountains.

When your body grows too weary, and all you feel is blue, days to escape fill your body with the green and gold of living things.

Days Away

Hunting for days away turns into a cycle that doesn't always make the escape seem so sweet. There are no cures for days like this, they are all too blue and made for dreaming.

And so I dream of mountains yet to climb, waterfalls yet to bathe under, and stars yet to gaze upon.

And so I wait, and so I dream, watching the morning sun stream through dirty window panes, scrolling through places I've never been.

Cody Updike