One year

[mrissa]

A year ago yesterday, we pulled the moving van up the slope of the driveway and prayed the brakes would hold. We got to come home. We got to come back where we belong.

Some of you know that I graduated from high school a year early. I skipped a year and went sailing on to college. For the entire first year I was in college, people kept asking me, "Do you regret it? Do you miss it?" And the answer was always no. Never once did I regret it. Never once did I miss it. It's been 9 years since I graduated from high school, and I still haven't regretted it for the tiniest split second. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I sometimes missed people who were still back in Nebraska, but that's a different thing.

Nobody is asking me if I regret leaving California. Nobody is asking me if I miss it. I think everybody can hear my eyes mist over when I talk being here. I have never regretted it, not once all year. And I have not missed California. People, yes; living there, no.

I think the analogy continues, because college was not what I thought it would be. It was better. And so has it been being here, being home. It has not been a perfect year by any stretch of the imagination. But it's not just coming home. It's making it home, making it a different home than it was when we lived here before. Making it better. Richer. More full of hugs and books and good ice cream and sometimes people popping up going, "Hey, we should...."

Maybe it'll fade. Maybe I'll stop appreciating the Minneapolis skyline every time I see it. Maybe seeing the stand of yellow birches across our nearest lake will no longer steal my breath. Maybe I'll stop driving by the Lutheran church on Cedar that says "HOPE" in big letters and taking it as a specific instruction every single time. Maybe. I doubt it, though. Being away from home for four years made me awake to it, and for that I'm very grateful. Almost as grateful as I am to be back.

Comments

[retrobabble.livejournal.com]

Lovely--you made me want to visit Minneapolis, and that is a first.

I only regret that I didn't know you when you were in California. It would have been fun to get together.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Indeed, especially since we knew very, very few people for the time we lived in Concord. Ah well. That's what cons are for.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Minneapolis is a beautiful place. I think if I ever leave Moorhead, I'll move there.

[katharine-b.livejournal.com]

I graduated from high school a year early, too, and was always asked the same question. I never regretted it either.

In the last year I've moved all the way from the east coast to the west coast, and then halfway back again. I don't miss the specific places I've lived, though I miss bits of the places -- the dry breezes in southern Oregon, the damp crisp green woods of the east. I'm getting accustomed to Austin, but I'm not sure where I'll call home, eventually.

I'm glad that you're living in a place you love -- I don't know your part of the country well, but it sounds lovely. You're lucky to have an environment that makes you stop and take notice, yet feels utterly comfortable, too.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Happy anniversary! Moving back here seems like one worth keeping track of.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Minneapolis is my "boy next door," in romance novel terms. I was in and out of Minnesota my whole life, and then all of a sudden I grew up and it looked different -- and much more interesting.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's easy, too, being on C.J.'s birthday and all. If this month was going differently, I might have had our fall party last night or today to add one more thing to celebrate. If a frog had wings, I suppose.

[fiddledragon]

I went to college a year early as well - USC's Resident Honors Program. I don't regret it one second. I regret things that I missed in college because I was too stubborn or too scared, but probably won't ever regret going to college early.

I also miss California - but short term misses - I feel like MN is home. But it doesn't stop me from missing the mountains and the ocean...

Sadly, my parents will be moving to MO within the next two years, and while Mom lives out there, it's not the same - she doesn't live in So Cal.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I don't have to miss the middle prairie, because my folks and grands still live down there. I can visit Nebraska and have enough of it that way. If I didn't have a good excuse to visit it, I'm not sure what I'd do. Miss it a fair bit, I think.