How can I describe the way I feel right now? Happy? Content? Satisfied? None of these words seem to work.
I cruised down Lincoln Highway today, on my way back from some errand or another. Several landmarks caught my eye.
I saw the branch of Sovereign Bank where I opened my first bank account.
I saw the dealership where I bought my first car.
I saw the junkyard my sister and I had visited such a long time ago, when she broke the wing-mirror of my mother's Acura. We never did find a replacement.
I saw the house of one of my best friends through high school. I remembered going there to visit him after he wrecked his car and messed up his back.
I saw the Food Lion grocery store where I had first met Brooke.
I saw the stop sign that I had ran when I got my first traffic ticket.
I saw the mini-golf and ice cream place I had been to on so many dates.
I saw the pharmacy that I used to have to go to when my grandmother lived with us.
I saw the back-road my father had let me drive on when I had first gotten my license.
I saw all of these places, and I realized something: this is my home. No matter how far I may move away or how many times I call myself a "Floridian", no matter what it says under the address part of my passport, or on the license plates of my car, this place, this backwards, redneck, hillbilly area that I have tried SO hard to get away from my ENTIRE life will ALWAYS define who I am. I have left my mark on this place, and this place has left a mark on me, whether I would like to admit it or not. The hills, the valleys, the one-lane roads and the timed traffic lights, the pick-up trucks and the tractors, the trees and gophers and groundhogs and deer, the streams and the lakes, the apple orchards and the fields and the vast mountains that line the horizon, all of these things are a part of me, they are a part of who I am. I, me, myself, my goals and ambitions, desires and dreams, my perceptions of the world and my sense of self, my values and my principles and my beliefs, my philosophy and my politics, the way I walk, the way I drive, the way I talk, and the way I think.
And just like that, the world fell into place.