Sunday, July 26, 2009

Prom with Jesse

I don’t like hellos or goodbyes. I am not confident in my ability to give a good first impression. You would think after moving 9 times (not including the 7 times of different apartments, wards, and roommates at college) I would be better at hellos and goodbyes. When I was leaving Thursday evening, I didn’t want to make a big scene. Tori, Brady, and Kari, being the only ones home, walked me out to my car. I didn’t expect to get choked up. Kari got a little tear in her eye, so that didn’t help. After promising Brady I would call if I got any sort of tired, I pulled out of College Ave at 11:35 pm. I managed to drive away without any real waterworks. Just a little teariness. It was surreal realizing I wouldn’t see everyone for two years or possibly never again in some cases.

Most of my friends are pretty attached to the places they are from. When people ask me where it is I call home, I always feel I am fibbing just a little when I say Arizona. I know this is cheesy, but for me home isn’t where I am living or my parents have a house, or where I’ve grown up. Home is within the people I care about and love most. Moving around as much as we did made my family extremely tight. My family, now spread across 4 states, is home for me. You all managed to make Rexburg home for me, if only because each of you was there. Each of you contributed somehow whether you were part of the foundation, a wall, an old couch, or painting on the wall. I don’t know why I am getting so sentimental. I guess I am just in that sort of mood. I realize this isn’t forever, but I do feel I am ending a chapter in my life and am beginning a new one. I want to thank you all for in some way or another being “home” for me.

One more cheesy thing, if you can handle it…This is how I’ll know that I am 100% honest to goodness in love; that I’ll want to spend eternity with that person. It won’t matter where we’ll live or where we’ll go because they will “remind me of home.”



P.S. To quote the great Arnold Schwarzenegger: Rexburg, “I’ll be back.”

4 comments:

Unknown said...

leah, i love you. this was very lovely and touching. thank you for posting it.
i miss you but i am so excited for the new adventures you are about to have and i can't wait to hear about them in the letters we'll write.

Jenna and Scott said...

I was just telling my mom how i am excited to go home to rexburg, and how it really has become my home. This was a great post, thanks. I am excited to hear about your upcoming adventures, and enjoy your time with your family:)

monica said...

i dont enjoy goodbyes either, mostly because i feel like i will see most people again. so leah, see you later!

oh and i love how you said "brady was home" like no big deal be practically lives there.

oh my gosh, same with me-when the boy feels like home. that was colton. i liked that about him.

Harpski said...

i still love this song