Home. Reminiscing. Ordinary Adventures.

That's a weird concept right now. Ha. Home. I'm driving very familiar streets. In the last two days, I've had dinners prepared for me at two different homes (My Mexican Families). I live in Iowa now. That's my residence.


Home is where the heart is. Then I guess I have a couple different homes right? I have a piece of my heart everywhere.


I was driving to the house I grew up in (see what I did there? I didn't call it home) and looked at the clock. "It's 9:58," I thought, "it's pretty early!" So I circled back and just decided to take a drive. It felt great looking at familiar streets.I decided to tour my elementary and middle schools to kill the time and reminisce. It was nostalgic to have mini movies play in my head. Each one was as vivid as watching it on film.


One of the scenarios is where I walk towards the school entrance from my parents' cars giving them a kiss on the cheek and meditating on what the rest of the school day was going to be like. My first day of school. The air so cold I could see my breath, my backpack filled with brand new school supplies and writing utensils I was going to lose in weeks. All of my friends went to another middle school since my parents faked our address to get into the less ghetto. I was going to have to make new friends. I was in a completely different environment. A big school. Harder teachers, and I had no clue what to expect. But at least I had my new mechanical pencils, right? Do you remember that rush, the anticipation, and anxiety of that first day of school? Do you know when I last felt that? It was when I dropped off my dad at the airport after our long road trip to Des Moines, IA. It's that feeling of, "Is this for real?" "Wow, I'm really growing up, huh?"


I continued my drive and I just noticed buildings that have been built, street lines that have been painted, and businesses that were either abolished or replaced. My hometown is going on without me and for the the longest time I have been stagnant in my growth because I was waiting on my hometown. For the longest time I kept rereading the last page in the last chapter and prevented myself from advancing the next one. Life has to go on, and whatever that next challenge God leads me to, I have to take it with open arms (sidenote unlike Jon 'Bones' Jones in UFC 151).


I will always cherish my family and friend-families here in southern California. But Iowa is my home right now. I have new streets to get more familiar with, new roads, and new situations to where I can say "Wow, I'm really growing up, huh?"