The Power of a Lemon

A couple of days ago, I stopped dead in the store in front of a pile of lemons, and I couldn't stop the smile from taking over my face. Why, you might ask, was I stopped-dead-over-the-moon-excited to find lemons for sale? It's because in Latin America, they're almost impossible to find! Limes are abundant, but you search for their yellow cousin, and you're bound to come up short. Not today! I bought a couple of lemons and brought them home, excited beyond belief.

You might be saying, "They're just lemons! What's the big deal?" Not to me. To me, a simple lemon can be a symbol of the home I left three years ago. Missing home hits you in the face when you least expect it, like when for the life of you, you can't find a goddamn lemon in the grocery store.

I left the US thinking I'd never miss it. I was bitter and disillusioned, and I was sure that the country held no nostalgia or feelings of home for me. That was youthful ignorance. It's impossible to grow up in a place for your entire life and not feel something for it. It wasn't until I had spent enough time away that I began to see more good than bad, and even sometimes miss it.

Now when I visit the US, I'm excited. There are so many things there that we don't have here. And while the US culture is widespread throughout the world, it's not understood by outsiders the way it's understood by us. My country will always have a part of me.

Deciding to leave where you grew up is difficult - more difficult than I knew at the time. But sometimes you find a lemon in the store, and a little piece of home shows itself in the strangest way. So now I'll sit on my balcony, looking out over my little Colombian neighborhood, and drink a glass of lemon water, straight from the homeland.