This would be my first extended visit to North Carolina since moving to CA. Many of my friends in Berkeley spend weeks or months in their hometowns, but a week is about all I had time for. Nonetheless, it's been interesting. This is not the first time I moved; my family left VA when I was 12. Trivial, I know, but this blog is the closest I have to a journal, so I'm going to log these thoughts here.
Riding around Chapel Hill and Durham, I don't find myself looking for things that are different so much as simply subconsciously recognizing familiar terrain. After nearly a year in Berkeley, I've become so acclimated to trying to take in as much as possible to familiarize myself with new streets, grocery stores, and landscapes that it takes me by surprise when I find my brain relaxing more as I ride in a car. Apparently Chapel Hill is still home, and I'm not as settled in Berkeley as I'd like to think.
Visiting friends here has been good for my soul. My friends in Chapel Hill are people who were around me as I forged my identity and figured out who I am, a process that led me to graduate school and, God willing, an eventual academic career. I'm blessed to be surrounded by amazing people in Berkeley, and I have formed friendships that I imagine will be lifelong, but something about being around people who know you because they watched you become you is comforting and nourishing. I think this paragraph is the most I've ever written about my feelings on this blog, or anywhere else on the tubes of the internet. That's because I know some of the people I'm talking about read this blog, and I'm lousy at expressing my appreciation in person. Consider this an inadequate substitute. Thank you.
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1 comment:
I'm glad that you recognize that the internet is made of tubes. Ted Stevens said so.
I have similar feelings toward Chapel Hill, as I did a lot of forging my adult identity stuff there as well. Even though I've spent longer periods of time in other places, it's definitely home.
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