Could this be any truer? For me I think it is pretty much dead on. I could be anywhere in the world and be just fine I'm sure, but there's always that one place where you will call home no matter where you are or what you're doing in life. Mine is Massachusetts. It is where I grew up, where my friends are, and most importantly it's where my family is. Eric would agree as well since all of those statements would be just as true for him. It's like when everything in the world is changing and you're looking for that sense of stability and reassurance, you know you'll find it back home. As most of you already know Eric and I decided to move our family to Northern Virginia last summer after Eric was offered a great job opportunity in Washington, DC. For us it was a hard decision and yet not so hard all at the same time. The funny that about having that one place that feels so secure and normal is that you always wonder what you're missing way out in this great big world of ours. With so many different countries, states and cities to choose from why the heck would we want to be in the same 'ol little place that seems so normal for us? I bet I am echoing the words that so many of you play in yours heads every day. When the opportunity came for Eric's job it was almost as if we would be passing up a once in a lifetime chance to take off and start fresh in a whole new place and at that time in our lives, it was just what we were looking for. And that's just how we ended up leaving our "home" and looking for a new one.
After being here for almost a year now it's been quite an adjustment for our family. Being a stay at home Mom to two little boys and having Eric work long hours with a less than perfect commute has made things kind of exhausting to be quite honest. We have had a lot of fun while here and got to experience some really amazing things, meet some wonderful people and learn some extremely valuable life lessons. I am truly grateful that we were able to have the opportunity to take such a leap of faith and that things worked out well.
With that being said, being away from everything you've ever known also puts things in perspective. How else would one ever really know what it is that they're looking for unless you tried it right? I guess it's probably like me saying that I hate every single kind of seafood and gag when I even think about being near that slimy, disgusting sea creature type cuisine...ugh, gag me. But, if you want to know the truth I have never eaten seafood. I think I might have eaten fried clam strips doused in sauce as a kid once and had tuna from a can a time or two...that was enough for me. I hate seafood. Now all of you are probably yelling at your computers saying I'm crazy because I could never know unless I try it. Well, you're right I'm sure...but I'll take my chances with this one since I can tell you I will lay to rest without ever tasting a lobster, shrimp, clam or any other disgusting thing crawling on the ocean floor. Yuck. So, if we can just take that really long and drawn out example of what I'm trying to explain here and put it back into the context of this post then that would be helpful huh? Sorry. I told you in my first post that I ramble so to be fair, I warned you. Anyways, it's pretty much the same thing. I was kind of a dreamer and don't think I would have ever really known where I was meant to be unless I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried it. I needed this experience to show me what is important to me and it did just that.
My family is important to me. My friends are important to me. My "home" is important to me. As I said in the beginning, I'm sure we could be just fine anywhere. We would adjust and our children would grow up knowing nothing else but is that really what we want for our family? We've come to realize it's not. Eric and I have done a lot of soul searching, growing, talking, a whole lot of everything since we moved and what it comes down to is this. We want to go home. Home is where the heart is. It's where our nieces and nephews are growing up without us. It's where our children's grandparents are sitting while they look at each other through a computer screen from time to time, and it's where our friends are sitting around laughing over a box of cheap wine while they reminisce about old memories and plan for new ones. I don't want to miss that and our boys shouldn't have to either. So, now starts the beginning of our journey "home".
We are moving back to Massachusetts!
