The Home We Left
I think that human development has built in course correction. I cannot summon up the angsty need to fix the world that pained me when I was a teenager. I see the same broken world and the same massive needs at 33 and my responses are much more practical. My friends tell me about their dreams to move to a new (new again) country or invite me to see their homeland. I think about how ridiculously happy I am with the people and places that are already in my life. I think about the fact that the only traveling I want to do for the next ten years is the traveling that is bringing me to one of my past or present hometowns. There is a path from birth to adulthood of being cared for, breaking free, and seeking what we left. And it seems like our bodies know it.
I am in the midst of the greatest adventure of my life and I am loving it! I changed countries 14 months ago, got married 5 months ago, and my wife and I are strategizing how to best make a living in a country neither of us were born in. But the goal I can’t stop thinking about is our hope that four years from now we will find a way to spend more time with my parents and siblings.
My grandma is preparing to move across the country so that she can see more of my Mom after decades on the other side of the USA. My aunt is getting ready to make the same move. My neighbor, who decided to leave home at all costs, is toying with the idea of moving back to the state we grew up in - a master’s degree and a tour of duty after his great escape.
If I could only add one thing to the life I am making as a young man, it would be the physical local presence of all my loved ones. My parents and grandparents, siblings, and cousins. My aunts and uncles and the relatives beyond those titles. My friends from each phase of life. And while I was at it I would add in my old teachers and my old bosses. Everyone that cared enough to shape me into the man I am today.
This is a new feeling and it’s smacking me like a 10 foot wave. It’s so new that I don’t know what kind of conclusions to make about it. But I’m pretty sure there’s something programmed into me that’s guiding me along.
