This is a beautiful writing, and lucid. It reminds me of something I have heard not too recently about shorebirds fledging. I will have to look for it.

I'm doing it to get back to where I belong.

Yes. That is it, The raison d'être.

Leonardo da Vinci only scratched the surface when he said: For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.