learning to fly: "Home"

"You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone... it just sort of happens one day one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know." --Garden State

I liked this quote when I first heard it spoken in Garden State but after the past couple of weeks on the East Coast, I like it even more. On Dec. 10th I flew into Richmond, VA. The very next day I went to Third Pres (my home church) and was welcomed by many! It was wonderful to be in a church that I was familar with after attending a different church nearly every Sunday in CA. After church I headed to University of Richmond to watch a basketball ball game and hang out with some of my favorite people. It was a whirlwind of seeing 20+ people in the course of a few hours after being on a different side of the country just 12 hours earlier. As I began to feel the tiredness of the time difference I realized that I love Richmond and the people in it--but it isn't where I'm suposed to be right now. Richmond was too comfortable...CA is not comfortable at all, but it is my new "home."
That idea was confirmed over and over again throughout my 3 weeks in Richmond. I went to Moe's (mmm...love that queso!) and Starbucks in those 3 weeks hanging out with different people more than I've been to those places in the last year. From high school friends to friends still at UR to the youth group I grew up with to UR grads and even reunions with extended family I was overwhelmed with extreme socialness after the anti-socialness of finals. Despite being exhausted, I loved seeing everyone.
While the social idea of "home" was expanded, the physical location of my "home" also changed over break as my parents moved from the house I had lived in over 10 years. Much of my break was spent first packing and then unpacking the many boxes of my parents' stuff. Their new house is beautiful and I'm very happy for them.
Thank you to all the Richmonders for a fabulous break!

Here are some of my Christmas break pictures: