(My first piece for my writing class, from 2016)

I am arriving in Puerto Rico today and I feel this immense pounding force in my chest, like part of my soul is awakening and need to come out.  Looking through the window of the plane, I see the green rolling hills, the beach, the blue sky and puffy clouds, and the sun that you can almost touch.  My heart palpitates, and suddenly an amazing burst of feelings follows… happiness, and after some contemplation, sorrow.  With the feelings comes an array of thousand thoughts and an immense need to share… And that is how I decided to write this story.

Only someone from Puerto Rico can truly understand what I mean or what I feel.  I want to explore these feelings and write about them so I can better understand myself and so I can share my journey of discovery.  My hope is that you will learn something about me and maybe even discover something about yourself.

The dichotomy of my story – how I so completely adapted to my new home and life in Ann Arbor, and how much the feelings of my homeland, Puerto Rico, are still inside me and rush to the surface as soon as I approach “La Isla del Encanto.”  The duality of being Puerto Rican.  The internal forces that pull in different directions when you are watching a basketball game between United States and Puerto Rico.  These dormant feelings hide in a little corner of my mind and heart, but they are certainly real and powerful.  These familiar feelings also come rushing when I listen to “El Gran Combo,” or watch Miss Universe.  There is a duality, but maybe I don’t have to pick a side, maybe I can survive in both worlds.

There is a balance inside me that I feel has shifted toward my current life – because I have adapted so much, so completely to my life with my loving husband in Ann Arbor (who reminds me about how much I enjoy running in cold weather).  But somehow, that balance shifts very strongly the other way telling me that I am still, and will always be, very much Puerto Rican.