A Familiar Figure in the Distance

THERE HE IS AGAIN—that familiar figure in the distance. As a kid, I’d always wondered where he came from, and why he always seemed so far away. Many times, I'd lose him from how fast I moved compared to him, but he always found a way back to me, and I'd know it's him. With just a glimpse of a man in a bright jacket and a cap, I turn my head— he's there. When I need to get somewhere near or far, he's there. When I unreasonably want something unnecessary in my favorite not-just-a-bookstore bookstore, he's there? When I just finish a mentally and physically draining school event and need a ride home, he's there too. When I get lost in a park after mindlessly walking away from the adults, afraid of how I'd ever get back, he's still there. These times, even when I am ignorant of his presence and the world around me, he is and always will be there.

Now, seeing that familiar figure, who I perceive from a distance, tells me once again:

I am home.