Maui for a while...

Multnomah Falls pit stop on our way to Portland.

 I said good bye to the love of my life, almost two months ago. 

After leaving Hermiston, we had spent a few nights in Portland hanging out with his brother and friends. My mom flew in the night before Nick was leaving, so we got our bags together one last time and met her at the airport.

 This is us on the MAX almost to the airport. The thought of the next morning when we would have to say goodbye to each other, for 10 months, formed a heavy cloud over us.

Our summer was really over now, not even a few more days in Portland together. 

We had finally ran out of time.

An old man sitting across from us asked where we were going with all of our luggage. 

When we explained that Nick was leaving for Spain the next day, and I was moving to Maui for a year... he said to us, using his hands to show the lack of distance between us 

that there should instead be, "No, no. You two need to stay together. I can tell."
He kept on, telling us that he could see our love was real, that being young and in love is something to spend time on, that he would know. "Stick together".

We both thought it was very sweet that he felt like he could see such a strong bond between the two of us. Yet still his words cut through the bus' stagnant air, like a spear right through my heart.

Everything that I had been telling myself up until that point, to avoid having to face my sour reality of loss and love... I could no longer hear. I only heard his words, and the clock ticking in my head. 

It would keep clicking. 

Late into the stillness of the night,
in the hotel room shared with my mom sound asleep.

Holding onto one another tightly, something that soon wouldn't be there.
I almost couldn't breathe. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock. His alarm would sound a few hours after the attempt at sleep. 

Grab his bags. To the lobby for coffee. Tick, tock. 

Nerves turned to tears. Deep breathes. 

Open the doors, feel the chill. Tick, tock. Kiss goodbye. 

Close the doors, the breeze chills. 

Turn around. Bus, gone.

Ding, dong! The hour has struck. Just like that. 

A moment in time, I never wanted.

I moved back home to the island of Maui in Hawaii for a year long
AmeriCorps position with  West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership.
I hike and camp throughout some of the most remote parts of the west Maui mountains.
We mainly focus on feral animal and invasive weed control by building fences, setting snares and using various cutting and herbicide techniques. We conduct water quality testing and monitor storm water catchments, human activities management, using GPS and GIS mapping.
I will also be assisting in public education and awareness leading volunteer trips,
and facilitating community outreach events.

 This is how I get to work on a weekly basis. And here are some of the views...

Nick said it best himself on his first night in Spain:

"Our new jobs place us on opposite sides of the globe but there's no denying the experience and value of them while we remind ourselves who we are outside of the relationship, a gift as well as a responsibility owed to one another. It will be difficult at times, but rewarding to say the least. She is so worth waiting for.... What's more, we are inexplicably proud of and happy for each other's experience and opportunities."