Home is Where Your Heart is: Seasons Change

Sometimes, for no reason at all, your heart just yearns for home.  Seasons change, you get busy, and then you lose track of how much time has really passed since you’ve seen the ones you love. I’ve spent the past eleven years living in Florida, since I left home back in 2007.  I had no idea leaving Michigan, leaving all of my family, would ever be this hard until now.

I didn’t realize at twenty-three years old that I was starting a new chapter, in a new place, building a life 2100 miles away from the people I loved most. What I did know at the time is that I wanted to get out of the tiny little town I lived in and experience new places. I wanted to chase my dreams with all my heart, and design a life I loved.

My wanderlusting heart didn’t start craving new places at twenty three. It actually started when I was about seventeen years old. Let me take you back and tell you a little of my story.

At seventeen, I met my first love. That will be another story for another day, but he was in the military and my adolescent heart wanted nothing more than to be in the same place as him, which was North Carolina at that time. I ventured off on my first road trip at seventeen, with not a fear in the world. I know I probably scared my poor momma to death, but she knew I wasn’t taking no for an answer and she stayed with me (on the phone) the whole trip. That was just the beginning for me.

Fast forward, after high school graduation, I moved to North Carolina and spent about five years there in my early twenties. I’ll share more of that with y’all later.

If you’re following so far, this means I briefly returned home for about six months in 2007, before I up and left for Florida.

I don’t regret any of those decisions, but three years ago, when I turned thirty, I started to really miss home.

So, I booked a ticket and I went home.  You see, I’ve always been very close with my family, and I used to take several trips home each year. But as I sat there last October, yearning for home, I realized almost fourteen months had passed since I last hugged my momma or grandparents.

Life is simply to short to be away from your loved ones for that long.  Don’t let the hustle of your daily grind consume you. Make the time to visit those you love, whether they live near or far.

Hugs,

Andrea Linn

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