Home. It's a funny how a word can have so many definitions. Constantly evolving, changing, and morphing I have had many different homes over the past 5 years. And for these past three weeks I have been traveling to many of these"homes", basking in the love they give me. Last I checked into the blog-o-sphere I was at the brink of this adventure, unsure how all of it would play out yet thrilled to jump on the plane and see those people and places that I love so dearly. Now that I am at the end of my "home hopping", I do feel like it was a lot. A lot of traveling. A lot of love. A lot of anxious nights before early morning flights. A lot of eating. A LOT of drinking. And mostly, a lot of love from all corners of my life.
I sat and ate tacos with a friend I've loved for only a year in Portland and then had martinis with another friend I've loved for 8 years that very same night. I traveled to New York to bask in the sunshine of one of my dearest friends from high school, walked through the East Village by the building that my sister went to elementary school in, only to meet up with my sweet Meghann from UNH, whom I haven't laid eyes on in 3 years. I came south to Pittsburgh to sit in my father's garden, pay tribute to a friend lost 10 years ago to tragedy, walk with Carly through the east end of the city, and bury my childhood dog's ashes in the backyard while I hold my Mom's hand.
How am I so lucky to have all of that? And yet, I still have more.
As I sit here in Nashville getting ready to set on the next adventure I worry that I've done too much and that my energy is too low for the next phase. But this one is different, it's all about love.
A trek through Panama with the man I am madly in love with begins tomorrow. And then, our drive across country as he comes back to my little Tennessee house to share with me for the year. This next stage will be less about seeing all those places I will forever call home, and more about forming a new kind of home with him. A home filled with memories of adventure, backpacks, west coast beer, pacific sand, redwoods, and my very first visit to the grand cannon. Needless to say, I'll write along the way. And although I am exhausted and worn from the traveling from before...the know the love I soaked in from my past will glow inside of me until I come back and settle in for my second year of teaching.
For those of you I saw, thank you for the best June I could have asked for. For those I didn't...I hate that it wasn't longer. Keep an eye out for a postcard in your mailbox.
Next stop...Panama!
