Recently I began talking with my childhood best friend (we met when we were four), with whom I hadn’t spoken in 18 years. This coming May, my wife and I are going to Cuba for the first time since we left, when we both intend to reconnect with our birthplaces and those who are still living in our neighborhoods (many have left).

Today my friend sent me this picture, which is of me, him, my younger brother, and my cousin, sitting on my grandmother’s sofa in Havana. I can’t wait to go back and return a changed person, with many stories to tell.