I was driving home from my parents’ house in Columbia three, maybe four weeks ago. It was late, and I didn’t feel like taking the interstate because, to be honest, I don’t really know that route without taking my GPS. I wanted to get on the highway and cruise without thinking, so that’s what I did.

I was feeling low, the same type of low I’ve felt lately — since graduation, or longer, really. Maybe for the last year. It’s that unexplainable type of feeling bad, of not knowing who you are enough to know what would make you happy, of making all these big and terrifying steps toward being your real self but finding that life is still hard when you do and say things you’ve been putting off for years. Harder, even.

And then there were fireflies in the road. Fireflies everywhere, little buzzes of light glinting through the dark in the middle of nowhere. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw deer raising their heads out in the woods. On the shoulder of the road was a rabbit, off-white and standing straight up, cocking its ears.  Continue reading →