Where do you consider "home"?
I moved 7 times before graduating from high school. While I was in college, I came home every summer to a different city in an entirely different state from where I graduated. While in college, I myself moved every other semester (with the exception of one apt that I stayed 3 semesters).
Zane and I have moved...well let's see...from the beginning we:
1-met in Rexburg, I moved back to my parents in Illinois, then back to Rexburg to be with Zane
2-moved to California to get married and lived there for a while
3-moved back to Rexburg
4-moved to OR and lived with family, then managed 2 different apartment complexes
5-moved back to Rexburg (lived in 2 different apartments)
6-moved to Maryland while Zane entered the army
7-back to Rexburg (2 different apartments again)
8-moved to Utah
9-moved to Twin, will move again at some point possibly later this year.
With all of this, you wouldn't really think I could consider any place home, right? That's true to a degree, but I have to say, every time I hear a country song or southern accent - I yearn for the South. Not just a twinge of homesickness, I mean - I miss it something fierce. I miss my accent that I had to drop while majoring in broadcasting. I miss every little thing about it (except the gnats, and those really horrid humid summer days). But sometimes I wonder if I would belong there anymore. I've changed - more than I care to admit. The food of the south is wonderful and amazing, and I don't think I would like it one bit anymore (So sad!). I've been gone so long I fear I've adopted these Western ideas of behavior. I was a flirt. I'll admit it. But sometimes people who aren't from the South can misconstrue just being friendly with being flirty and so over the years, I've become much more reserved. That's just one of the things that has changed. I've also grown accustomed to the mountains, and dry desert air, and altitude, and lack of bugs (except those stupid flies that never die). I like being able to tell which direction is north or south just by the road I'm driving on (not so meandering). But oh, when there is a thunderstorm I so miss those afternoon showers and the torrential downpours that grace the South so frequently. I miss chatting with the lady in front of me in the grocery line like she was my best friend. I really miss my accent (I already said that, but I really do) and it always makes my husband laugh when I talk to someone and it slips right back in like it was never gone. I tell him it's like I'm speaking a foreign language all the time (Idahoan) and I have been doing it so long that I don't feel like I can slip back permanently into the Southern drawl without being fake, but those few moments I relax my mouth feel like coming home.
I guess you just have to have lived there to understand why I consider the South my home, even though it was only my home for 6 years and I've been gone for 11 now. I don't know if I'll ever get back there. But for now, I guess I'll just turn up those country tunes, smile and sing along, watch me some Paula Dean ya'll, and every once in a while allow myself the pleasure and say "Toe-let" instead of Toilet. :)
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