I recently embarked on a girl trip with my friend Wendy who currently lives in Texas. The trip was long and I had a lot of fun. It was nice having another single person around that actually wanted to hang out with me. The plan was to get to her house on a Thursday and then stay there for a week and head out the following Thursday for "home". Well the weather was not cooperating with us since Arlington, Texas decided to have an ice storm right when we were supposed to leave. Come Thursday we were so ready to leave that we decided to venture out in the ice and see if we cold make it. Half way down the road and far enough away to feel that we could either turn around and fight the ice and be unhappy in Arlington or we could keep going and hope the ice ended soon...obviously we opted for the later. It was slow going and we had one scary moment where the vehicle decided to slide on it's own. I was able to keep us from going off the road into the median. Once safely stopped we all took a moment to breathe and then I was able to get us going again. After two days, on a road trip that should have only taken us one day, we were coming into Tucson. I had an overwhelming feeling of I don't know what....a feeling of awe I'm home or was I dreaming, did I not move, am I back in Tucson stuck forever? It did not hit me that it was really no longer home until Sunday when I was finished with lunch and had no where to go. I wanted to just go home and relax or take a nap but I had no home to go to. It was a sad reality but at the same time very freeing. A place I called home for so long but didn't necessarily like was no longer home. I was the visitor this time and I could go "HOME" whenever I wanted to. I no longer lived in a place where I sat at home along 90% of the time. A place that was still hot in the middle of February, for that matter a place that was hot 90% of the time. A place where I felt sad and alone. I now lived in a place with many people who told me many times while I was away that they missed me and wanted me to come back "HOME". A place where it was still 30 degrees or below and had snow on the ground. A place that changed me so much in the short time that I was there that everyone I saw told me that I had a glow about me, that I looked happier.
Don't get me wrong, Tucson ("home") will always be special to me. How can a place where you grew up and met some of the closest friends a person could ever have not be special? A place where most of my fondest memories reside. A lot of close friends and even closer family members still live in this place I once called home. It will always have a special place in my heart!
But my new "HOME", Mecosta, Michigan, is letting me experience seasons, new friends, and new adventures. I feel free like I can do almost anything I want to here. This is going to be a year of many changes and I'm looking forward to every single one of them!
I can truely say this is a trip that really taught me what "going home" really means!
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