I used to think my husband was exaggerating about Yosemite.
The most beautiful place on earth? Really? I'd seen pictures. I'd been there. It was pretty, sure, but the most beautiful place?
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| No filter could capture what he sees when he looks at this place. No words can either. But standing here, finally understanding why he loves it so much? That part I can feel. 📸 |
I didn't get it.
I think he finally stopped trying to convince me and just started showing me instead.
The Alien Learning To See
There are a lot of things I didn't understand when I married a foreigner and moved to California.
The language, obviously. I can speak English fine, but there's a difference between speaking it and feeling it. There's a gap between what I want to say and what actually comes out of my mouth. It makes communication hit or miss sometimes. He gets it. Or at least he's learned to.
The culture. The way Americans do things. The space everyone needs. The directness. The casual comfort with things I was raised to be anxious about.
The landscape. Manila is concrete and humidity and people pressed against you. This is... open. Wild. Indifferent to whether you're comfortable or not.
I'm the alien here. And for a long time, I was defensive about that.
But Yosemite? Yosemite is where I finally let him translate the world for me.