I flew home for the first time in a month last weekend to see my family, friends, and boyfriend. I had only been gone four weeks, but for someone who has never lived more than 30 minutes away from their family, that’s a pretty long time!
I entered this Semester in Washington Journalism Program fairly apprehensive about the whole “being away from home aspect.” I mean, I haven’t actually lived with my parents in a few years, so that part was less than novel. However, despite being very well-traveled, living outside of the Metro-Atlanta area for the first time in my life was daunting.
After spending a few weeks in Washington, DC though, I began to realize that despite being a big city, it’s really not that big after all. Random interactions with strangers and striking up a conversation with someone because they have on a Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt made home seem not-so-far away. While riding the Metro to work the other day, a woman sitting next to me told me about how she was from Georgia and I found out she went to high school with a friend of mine. My adjunct professor and a strong link in the chain of command at Voice of America, Steve Springer, told me about his days at CNN in Atlanta (which is right next to my school, Georgia State) and how he used to live a few miles from my parents’ neighborhood.
After all of my interactions with people who are from Georgia, have lived there, or had family there, it made it seem as if home weren’t really that far away. By the time I stepped off the plane in Atlanta last weekend, it felt like I had never even left. Those close to me have come to visit and I got to show them around my new home in D.C. I get phonecalls and text messages all of the time from those I love. But at the end of the day, nothing quite makes me feel at home as much as talking to a kid wearing an Atlanta Braves hat and telling him “I really feel like we’ll clinch the division this year.” Even if I can’t watch all of the Braves games on television, I am just as much home here as ever here in DC for the summer.
