Departure scheduled

Flight confirmation email arrived at 2:47 PM. March 15th to El Paso, returning the 22nd. Seven days with Abuela Rosa learning everything I should have learned years ago.

Departure scheduled

Jake found me staring at my phone afterward and just nodded like he’d been waiting for this moment too. “About time,” he said, which is exactly what I needed to hear instead of any version of “are you sure?” We both know I’ve been circling this for months.

Now comes the hard part - figuring out what questions to ask. How do you compress decades of family history into a week? How do you learn recipes that were never written down, stories that were never recorded?

Making my list of everything I need to learn.

Started a list but it feels impossibly small for something this big.

Abuela Rosa sounded different when I called to confirm the dates. Not surprised, exactly, but relieved. Like she’s been waiting too.