June 16th, 2014

Today I arrived at my parents’ house in Cleveland. I packed up my New York apartment into a 10 foot U-haul and drove it 9 hours to Ohio. Each of my closest friends cried as they hugged me goodbye – 1, 2, 3, and 4. For me, the sadness didn’t take effect until this moment. In school, heading to Cleveland meant heading home, but since Leaving Cleveland for good (or what I thought was for good 3 years ago), home had reshaped itself into my 1,300 square foot apartment. Home at this moment no longer sounds like the greeting barks of the parents’ dogs as I open the porch door, but instead like the booming laughter of my two roommates during a good joke told at communal dinnertime. It is hard to leave home, but you barely realize what you’ve done until you’re crawling into a new and borrowed bed, and suddenly what is familiar will never be the end of your day again.