just north of the mason dixon line

I'm so refreshed and energized after a week away from school, California, and all the mixed up crazyness that seems to build up. Being home was amazing. People at home know you unlike anyone else in the world. You don't have to explain yourself, they can read your face. I hadn't seen a lot of family and friends in about 3 months, and some even longer, but it was like I never left. My little town with no traffic lights hadn't changed-with the exception of the leaves being on the ground and the air bitingly cold. You know that feeling when you're little and you fall asleep in the car and you can feel your dad pick you up to take you inside to bed? That's what going home feels like for me-maybe a little less groggy-but I can drop my defenses and let the familiarity cradle me. I never would have guessed that someday my favorite place in the entire world would be New Freedom, PA. I was so eager to leave and become someone. What I didn't know was that Pennsylvania had already made me the only someone I'd ever need to be, and it took leaving to realize it. My close knit community of neighbors, congregation, teachers, relatives, parents, and friends' parents raised me, and I'm so blessed to have had that as a constant my entire 20 years.