InnerTeub

I was born in Texas. When I was 5, we moved to Minnesota. My parents both claim they could not, at the time, think of a single reason anyone would ever want to move to Minnesota, but the job was a good one and they were over Texas (… I mean, I’m assuming. I was 5. I wasn’t really party to the family living discussions) and so they went.

Within six months (so the story goes) they said they’d never live Minnesota. They loved it.

I get that. Minneapolis was a great place to grow up. I know, I know, the Midwest, with the accents and the Fargo and yes, yes, I know: it’s not cool to be from the Midwest. But I loved it there, and I love going back.

Both my parents are from the East, however, and one steadfast rule they had for their kids is that we all had to leave Minnesota when we turned 18. There would be no living in the basement, doing the same things with the same people we knew in high school. We were not allowed to apply to colleges in Minnesota.  When 18 came, we were out.

This is a good way to grow up in the Midwest, I think. I always knew I’d be leaving. And I have so much family NOT from the Midwest, that we were constantly going back East, there was the element of a bigger world than the Twin Cities. It’s good perspective to have – pride in where I’m from with the knowledge of where else to go. Now that I’ve left, I find myself thinking “Is it time to go back?”

I bring this up now because theBoss and I are discussing a lot where we want to be, what type of lifestyle we want to have. We don’t see ourselves raising a family in D.C., but then it’s amazing to think of leaving a group of friends and a community that for all intents and purposes is a family.

But still. We talk about this, and we dream of our someday home in someday city. I try to remind myself that my parents fell assbackwards in a home and a place they ended up loving, and to let life take its course, but I also know that I can make clear choices, and build the type of life I want to have, purposefully, deliberately.

One thing I have always loved about D.C. is that no one is from here. With everyone being from somewhere else, the ease of making new friendships is remarkable. Everyone is new. Everyone wants to meet people. I have never been somewhere so inviting to newcomers. But then on the flip side – if no one is from here, than that may mean that no one stays here. And maybe it is our turn to be the ones that leave.

We travel. We look at places online. We ask ourselves “Is this home?” Is it a school district, or a time zone, or where your job is, or a proximity to grandparents? Is there a place on this earth that calls to you, that feels like home in a way no where else ever will?

I don’t know. But we’re trying to find out.