Homes
Thanks to those long layovers, Adam and Jacob had basically gone on a mini backpacking trip across Europe. They told us about the park benches they slept on, the lack of water they drank, and how they watched the sunrise over the Colosseum without a single soul around.
(I wasn't jealous at all…)
Safe to say… they were very ready for a real bed.
But when we finally got home, none of us actually went to sleep.
We stayed up until 6am.
Mia had bought a $100 guitar for me and Jacob to play (I was NOT going a whole month without touching an instrument) so we ended up jamming a little, too. That small, travel-beaten black acoustic, the one we somehow brought everywhere after that, became the guitar I wrote my entire Paris of the East album on.
Cheap. Slightly too small. Dropped more than once.
Still my favorite instrument I own.
But mostly, we just caught up.
Our friend group isn't like most. We didn't meet in school or through mutual friends or by accident. We met through GoTribe: a community our parents helped build for kids like us. Ambitious. Driven. Looking for their people. Every Thursday night at 8pm EST, we'd get on Zoom and talk about our highs and lows, our goals, our struggles, whatever we couldn't really talk about with most.
We'd hold each other accountable. Push each other to dream BIGGER.
It was the 6 of us. For years. Every single week.
None of us live in the same city. We were scattered across the States and up into Canada, so time like this (seeing each other in 3D) didn't come around often.
And when it did, we didn't waste it.
Sleep was optional.
We had a rule: pack every moment with something. Something stupid, something adventurous, or something honest.
That night checked all 3.
No, the reunion didn't look like the version I'd imagined. But it reminded me of something better. The actual person. The friend. Not the idea I'd been carrying around since July. And just like that, the anxious feeling faded.
Because we were all finally together. 3 of my favorite people in the world, in one room, about to start something we'd been talking about for months.
That guitar sitting in the corner had no idea what it was about to become.
Eventually, though… we crashed.
And if you flew in today, you're probably feeling it too. Hours of travel, walking all over Centrul Vechi, getting up on that stage, late night food… it adds up. By the time we got back, I already had blisters forming on my ankles and the tops of my feet. Turns out I did NOT break in my ballet flats enough.
So go get some rest.
You've earned it.
______
TZAYLA
~ Adventure Sound Like THIS ~
