Good thing I left

March 2026

Good thing I left.

And I left behind the fear of dying from strange causes,
I stopped checking every shirt for a spider
and hiking without thinking about snakes
or walking under the sun, without calculating how many years it robs from me.

Good thing I left, and stopped looking for that "cultural richness"
and can eat, instead, dishes full of flavor, culture, and tradition.
To experience all seasons of the year again
and the pleasure of working more for much less.
That people no longer smile at me on the street
and that they ask me questions that I often can't answer due to their
pronunciation.

How lucky that I no longer have worries about visas and documents.
Nor do I carry the burden of counting down days to leave and deciding an uncertain future.

How lucky, yes, good thing I left
and took so many burdens off my shoulders.

Good thing I have so many arguments, to try to convince myself
that the bad outweighs the good,
even when good things slip away among the bad,
that's what I tell myself, when nostalgia hits, that I didn't make a mistake.

The problem is, I have no way to explain that
to the part of me that stayed there,
nor can I fill the void of the part that is here.