I miss the cacophony of the buzzing nights,

Surrounded in the unfamiliar, yet comforting faces

And the numbing cold of January, followed with the warmth of a hot cocoa.

I long for the people who have shaped me into the person I am,

And the reassurance only a grandmother can give,

The humid July nights spent firefly hunting with my cousins.

The most agonizing part of it all,

The overwhelming distance between my friends grow further than the thousands of miles apart we already are,

Childhood parks torn down and rebuilt, watching the little ones grow inches and inches taller from my cell phone screen,

And accepting that life moves on without you.