the distance from home

It's always a giant reality shock when I hear things that remind me that life in California went on -- goes on -- without me. That they still have school and lives and seasons and daily life things -- that they exist basically -- even though I'm here and not there to take part. When I go home this summer, that's all I'll have, this summer. I won't get the autumn and winter and spring of home and the everyday things that go along with them. It continues whilst I expect it to wait. When I think of it like that, home is just that much further away.