I lost my watch yesterday.

The first couple kilometers were on the train tracks.

The first couple kilometers were on the train tracks.

I lost my watch yesterday. It must have fallen out of my bag on the mountain, probably when I took my camera out. I’d put it in there to protect it from the rain.

 

The loss is bothering me more than I understand.

 

I used it a lot. I wake up in the darkness a lot these days, and knowing if I’ve been asleep five minutes or five hours seems to matter to me at that point. I will need to know the time in the weeks and months to come, as I check schedules and arrange transport. On a bus or train in a foreign and unknown country, if I know the length of the trip I know when to start watching for my stop. Without that I will be more vulnerable. I fell asleep on the train today and had no way of knowing if I’d passed my stop.

 

Is that why?

 

They were unsure about approaching the bag of litter I'd collected.

They were unsure about approaching the bag of litter I’d collected.

I’ve had that watch for a long time. I replaced the battery in Prague in 2008. I replaced it again in Guayaquil in 2012. I’ve looked at it in the middle of the night an uncountable number of times, and it has woken me up for planes, appointments, classes more often than I can imagine. My first real love gave me that watch. In college, I think.

 

Is that why?

 

Or is it that right now, when nearly everything I own on this earth fits into a 40 liter backpack, have the things I have left become more precious? Is that it?

 

Is it that right now, when I have lost so much…one more familiar item seems too much.

 

I lost my watch yesterday.

And it is bothering me more than I understand.

Category : Extra personal, Photos, Sri Lanka, travel, traveling
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