In a few hours, I’ll be on a plane back to the west coast. It is so hard to leave my people on the east coast that I sometimes wonder why I do it. Yet I know that my home is also in California, and I’m excited to be back there tomorrow, even as I am sad to leave here.
For now, though, I am laying in bed at my mom’s house, steeped in gratitude for my family and friends. They are incredible people, who welcome me with wide-open arms whenever I reach a pause in my wanderings. They make time for me, and laugh and listen to me, and treat me as though I’ve never even left their sight.
So when I do depart, when I am flying high over this land and putting miles in between us, I hope so much that they know it is in part their love that propels me forward, even as it is the same thing that helps keep me grounded. Straddled in between the coasts, my heart held by both sides of this country, I know how very, very lucky I am.
The Wandering Introvert 