The End Of An Era

Though, I feel very emotional about leaving South Beach in June, I’m also really looking forward to getting out of here.

In June, it will be 16 years since my ex and I pulled up in front of our hotel on Ocean Drive. We had driven all the way from Utah. He was staying, and I was going back to Utah until fall.

I arrived, for good, on October 1, 1993. I was heartbroken about leaving Utah, and scared to death of Miami. My beloved boyfriend forced me to make the most of it. We spent the next few years exploring south Florida with a vengeance. It was like being on a vacation where you actually had time to see everything.

The boyfriend and I split up in 1998, and he moved away in 1999. Today, in 2009, he is still my dearest friend, and this afternoon he is arriving in South Beach to spend five days with me. This will probably be the last time we will be together in the place we called home, together, for 5 beautiful years.

I came here for him. We were so young when we arrived. We grew together, and would not be who we are today, without having had this experience, in Miami, together.

I was briefly explaining our relationship today, and started getting choked up. Four years ago, this week, I entered rehab for my alcoholism and drug addiction. Scared to death, sitting in the hospital parking lot waiting to go in, I called him. His words to me were, “you have to do this, because I need my friend back.”. He will never know what an impact his words had on me.

He gave me the strength to move to Miami, and stay. He gave me the strength to get sober. I’m hoping now he will also give me the strength I need to return home. Back to Utah.