I spent the last week rapidly traversing the state of Ohio, from Cincinnati to Cleveland and back, to kick off my terminal leave from the Army. I hadn’t thought much on my decision to spend the first week of the official transition period of my life back in my home state until I heard Lebron James’ MVP interview and had a discussion with my mom. I was inspired by Lebron’s words when asked why his win meant so much to him and he said, “I’m home…I’m home. This is what I came back for.” It struck a chord with me as I thought how regardless of all the trips and places to explore, there is something about the opportunity to return to the familiarity of home that is still refreshing and exciting.
I could have chosen to go virtually anywhere in the U.S. to celebrate my newfound freedom, but I chose home. I could have made it just a three day trip to ensure I made it to my high school friend’s wedding and continued on to “more exciting” places. But something told me embracing the familiar was the best way to initiate the venture into the unfamiliar. Maybe I am a sucker for symbolism, but in reality family and friends are important to me, and the chance to reconnect with them after a long absence pulls on my heart strings more than the lull of a mountain trail or a foreign city.
I realized I enjoy finding new experiences in old places and old stomping grounds. No matter how much things stay the same there is always change (yep play on that old phrase.) I went to a family cookout at Walton Lake, a place I had been a dozen times in decades past, but found myself reconnecting with my younger cousins who, now years older, have stories of college classes and career plans. I could finally share a beer with a few of them. I went to restaurants in Covington, KY and Over-the-Rhine (OTR) that didn’t exist or I didn’t know about when I last lived in Cincinnati. I returned to Brown County, where I went to high school, for my goddaughter’s first birthday. My first as a godmother. I watched my close friend, Hannah, get married and reunited with people I hadn’t talked to in 7-8 years! So many new conversations and experiences with people who have always been in my life or were big parts of my life…the same landscape but the details evolving and changing.
At the same time, I’m sentimental and nostalgic so I also enjoy revisiting familiar places and sensing the memories they evoke and the stories they inspire. I ran on an old familiar bike trail near Granville, OH. One I have been on countless times whose bridges and cow pastures I could recite with eyes closed. And every step evoked some memories of runs and walks past. I ran down Broad street to the Alum Creek trail in Columbus, a favorite route from my brother’s house. I went with a dear friend to a dear place, the Cincinnati Zoo. Reminiscent of childhood trips and college dates. We spent the entire visit catching up and recollecting in between Polar Bear and Gibbon sitings. I watched Cavs basketball games in the living room with my grandpa and my parents. Something we’ve done more times than I know. But this time, they won the first NBA championship and the first major sports championship since 1964 for the city of Cleveland. To be with my family and back home for that moment will stay with me forever. If I had been hiking in Colorado or sitting on a beach I don’t think it would have been as momentous nor could I have watched my Mom scream and cry tears of joy when the game clock struck 00:00.
For anyone reading this who moved away from home, once in a while when given the opportunity to travel, its really worth it to find yourself choosing to return home. It doesn’t have to be long, my trip was seven days but it could be three or four. Go see how the people and the places you know and love have changed and evolved while you have been gone. Enjoy the experiences that change and growth enables. Don’t ever deny where you are from or ignore your roots. Remember how those roots stayed deep in the ground so you could blossom and be picked up by the wind to be placed into the unfamiliar and flourish. I found myself in Europe, I find myself traveling now, because of the people and the places in the old familiar spaces that remain and endure, ever-evolving ever so slightly. The people and the places that are home.
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