Home: May 2013

I know this is supposed to be my new travel blog, so it probably seems odd that I’m including home in that category. But…home isn’t really home anymore. I mean, it always will be, in a way. There’s no way to describe that breath of fresh air when I get off the plane, that first Neapolitan milkshake of the summer, that moment when I dip my toes in the ocean after a run on Scenic, that first Wednesday lunch back at Chipotle. Yesterday, I got to see one of my best friends for the first time since December. She’s been in South Africa, and we swapped stories about travels and school and lessons learned and fears. It was so natural, catching up after all this time, talking about how God has moved in us and where we’re struggling. I don’t have a friend like that at school, one who challenges me spiritually even as we physically struggle to mount Garrapata Ridge. I miss that when I’m gone. But I’ve learned to live without it. It’s a vacation luxury, a love that I now associate with the relaxation of summer and Christmas break. That breathtaking view of the ocean, where all you can see on the horizon is blue or green mountains…it’s not home anymore. Because I never see it. Home for me now is Cameron, it’s stress, it’s laughter in Crowell EE, it’s trips to the Quarry with a late-night stop at Cookout, it’s casual lunches with incredible visionaries and innovators and leaders, it’s front-row at Cat’s Cradle, it’s red wine and Gilmore Girls, it’s…Duke. Maybe that will change too in the upcoming year. But for now I’m planning on enjoying this vacation back to Carmel-by-the-Sea.