It's 7:30 am as I drive into the sunrise. The sky infront of me is a backdrop of peachy blue. As Table Mountain slowly dissapears in my rear view mirror, I realise that this chapter of my life is fading to a mere memory. Like a movie reel draws to the end, so Cape Town is now only flashes of what was...But like a new morning brings about a new day, the new chapter in my life brings with it new destinations, goals, memories, experiences and a new ending. Like the dawn prepares the day, so this trip home was preparing me for a new journey.
I was at a cross roads before I made a final decision to move to Cape Town 2 and a half years ago. My choice to move there was based on more money, company car and of course the perks that come with being a Capetonian. The thought of cocktails, warm evenings and no worries were quickly realised to be figments of my imaginations. But, no regrets.
I will always remember that day when my father drove away in his Isuzu bakkie. Within the first hour of being alone in Cape Town I experienced more emotions and feelings than ever before; bursts of tears, ultimate loneliness, excrutiating feeling of abondonment, regret and of course, fear of the unknown. I was just a young girl doing what she thought was right. Untamed. Unexperienced. My tears dried when I changed my mindset in that same hour. I was not 'a girl away from home', I was 'a girl at home'. And I never looked back after that. Cape Town taught me a valuable lesson within my first hour of being there...you decide how you want to feel about things in life in order to make something work - don't give up. This helped and will help me for many circumstances to come.
As dawn now was day, my journey home was met with various scenery, hop-along kids and the stern faces of those who just left the comfort of their seats in Sunday Service. Towns throughout the Western and Eastern Cape come...then go...Cape Town is now hundreds of kilometres behind me.
In exchange for my memories of laughter and tears, Cape Town has a piece of my heart. But even though I have great love for her, she is just another stop to the rest of my life:
"Cape Town...Check!"
"Next stop...Heathrow, London!"
