Today I return to South Africa. It’s been more than 7 years since I lived in Cape Town, and I’m a little nervous and a lot excited to go back. Will I recognize my old stomping grounds? How much will the city have changed? Did I glorify the city in my mind, are my memories rose-tinted?

I don’t believe that, but there’s only one way to find out.

I’m excited to show my partner this beautiful and historical place. I’m excited to gaze up at imposing Table Mountain with the sea wind at my back. I’m excited to fight the Southeasterly on a bicycle. Most of all, I’m excited to reconnect with the place I once called home.

Cape Town was the first place I lived outside of the U.S. Young and dumb and bold at 23, I really came into my own there. It was also the place I received my vision. It was there I recognized the essence and importance of education, there that I saw my path. It’s been a wild, sometimes rocky, and always unpredictable road from then to now, but there’s no denying the source was Cape Town.

It will be good to be back.