in mid-october i spent an awesome long weekend up on the island of martha's vineyard. have you ever had one of those places you visit time and time again, where the visiting stopped becoming a visit, and it felt more like home; like a place you felt most understood and comfortable? martha's vineyard has always felt like that place to me. my parents started taking me and my brother up there when we were little ones, and had been summering up there for most of my childhood and young adulthood. we always stayed in tiny fishing village called menemsha, where there was a general store, one gas station, a couple of seafood markets, and the galley - a place that sold the best soft-serve ice cream and frappes! there were unpaved roads, late nights spent squid-jigging, and others where we watched the moon rise over the ocean's horizon. early mornings where my brother and i would race down to the bay to snorkel and see the crabs wake up. it was a place where my parents taught us to explore beyond what we knew, be happy in simplicity, and bask in the beauty of what nature had to offer.

i remember driving home from dinner, my dad pulling off to the side of the road to stare up at the vastness above us. never had i ever seen so many stars in the sky, i could have lived there, staring up at the night sky. where sometimes my dad would go on about astronomy, the celestial bodies, and yes, aliens. there were beaches where i learned how to body surf and ride a wave, where my father taught me to skip stones, and where, unfortunately, observed the effects of what erosion and climate change has had on island. there were so many lessons i took away from those summers, and so many things i took away from those memories that are only now are fully resonating.