<3

all of my stuff is in boxes and suitcases. at 12:30, my friend is coming over and we are lugging the boxes to the post office to be mailed. at 4:30, my suitcases and i are getting on the megabus. at 9:30, the bus gets to union station in Chicago.

and i will be back in my city for the rest of my life.

it's kind of scary to say something like that at the tender age of twenty-five, but i know it's true. no city makes me as happy as Chicago does. i feel alive there in a way i don't anywhere else. everywhere else i've lived, it has felt temporary...like i'll be there, do what needs to be done [be it "finishing law school" or "getting out from under the parents' roof"], and bail out to somewhere better.

Chicago never felt like that. i never felt the need to finish up some phase of my life and go somewhere else. it broke my heart to leave it in 2005 to go to law school. even though i didn't yet have concrete plans to return then, it still never felt like goodbye for real. i knew i'd be visiting it a lot, and i still had in my heart the idea of moving back someday.

someday is may 21, 2008. someday is today. i'm coming home.