"Don't You Forget About Me"

These past three weeks have been some of the most important weeks of my life. I've met so many people, experienced so many emotions, and been countless places. We have made an entire 360 and we are on our way back home. I am sitting here in the airplane on the last flight back to Boston and now reflecting on the entire journey. These three weeks have given me so much that I am now bringing home.

I am bringing gifts back to my family and friends. Gifts that tell stories in every stitch of them; some stories are mine however some are by others. I'm coming home with my new family with whom I've experienced all of this with. But currently we are down a couple of members. I'm taking home my clothes. Most are dirty but some are clean. But all smell like India. I am coming home with mhendi on my left hand which will fade soon unlike the memories I've made hopefully. I am taking home many heart pins that we collected at different points in Ahmedabad. Each of them containing a little bit of another's heart. I have my camera that has hundreds of photographs and each of them take me back to a specific moment, a specific feeling. I have all of my boarding passes from each leg of this journey. I have my passport, a thin little book, which will hopefully lead me back to all of the people I've met sometime soon. I have my orange journal containing scribbles of my thoughts and all the things I wish I said but never did. I have so many selfies which take me back to a happier time than this one. I have contacts in my phone of all the people I've met and want to meet again and again and again. I have a such a kind letter in my backpack from a new friend whose adventurous attitude was inspiring. I have a WhatsApp group chat with my favorite group of "somethings" who I hope won't

ever leave me alone. And last but not least, I have this bracelet. This bracelet which makes me sob every time I look at it. This bracelet that I won't ever take off. This bracelet that was given with the words "I don't want you to forget about me." And I won't, I promise. Oh and before I forget, I have my heart of course. It feels full to the brim with love and happiness even though I am the saddest I've been in a while. But a piece of my heart is missing. I left it with some friends in India.

--Rhea