No Place Like Home
Recently, I was able to go back to California on vacation. It was not my first trip back since moving to the midwest, and as always I had a blast spending time with my family. No matter how long I’ve been away, it always amazes me how many things still seem familiar to me.
The highways…the city skyline as we approach from the airport. I still remember all the hangout spots in Old Sacramento. I can navigate the streets of my old neighborhood as if I had never left.
That’s why I was surprised by how different things felt while I was there.
Don’t get me wrong, as far as my family goes, everything was great. They are the same as they’ve always been.
It was everything else that seemed different.
The highways are packed with so much traffic that the city seems like a major metropolitan area–without all the attractions. All the hangouts in Old Sac look the same–but no one recognized me at the one we went into. And the streets of my old neighborhood….wow.
There used to be a field behind my grandma’s house where my cousins and I would spend hours having dirt clod fights. My grandfather grew strawberries in a small section of it directly behind his fence. There are houses there now.
It was more than that though.
As much as I loved my vacation, I eventually found myself longing for home. I wanted my bed….my recliner…my temperature-regulated apartment.
My home. Here in Wichita.
I came to the realization after we got back from vacation that things didn’t just seem different. They are different.
When I left California, I left my family and every friend I had behind to be with the woman that would eventually be my wife. It’s not a decision I have ever regretted for a single moment, but–understandably, I think–I spent much of my early time here comparing everything in my new surroundings to those in my hometown. I figured that as time went on, I would stop saying things like, "I’m not used to this, I’m from California…" or "When I was still in Sacramento…"
Two years later though, I am still doing it.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I spent 25 years learning one way of life. I can’t expect it to change in less than one-tenth of that time.
Over time though, things have changed. Since I’ve moved, I’ve lost friends.
Best friends.
But since I’ve moved here, I’ve gained friends too.
Best friends.
I have my family in California, supporting me as always…but I’ve also gained a second family that welcomed me with open arms from the moment I arrived and has only embraced me more since we got married.
I’ll always be from California. It will always be my hometown…but for the first time ever, I feel like I have just as much, if not more, here in Kansas as in California
More than anything, that makes this place feel like home.