No Place Like Home: Where I Come From

I was really excited about this link up with Katie from State of Change & Holly from Perfectly Imperfect Holly and then I went to Vegas, took my kid to the doctor, drank two bottles of wine & pretty much forgot about everything that wasn’t in my bubble. But, because Katie is fantastic she said I could link up late – which is totallllly what’s happening.

The prompt for this particular post is

Where I Come From

I wish it were so easy as to say “I come from a little ol’ place called Rosebud, Texas.” (Which I do.) But the truth is, we moved around a lot growing up - Utah, Arizona, Kansas. And so, I like to think I came from all these places. I made friends, I learned lessons, I had heartbreak, I witnessed extraordinarily ordinary things, I gained perspective, I grew up. I became me.

Texas: I was raised here during my early childhood. I remember sunny days, swimming, skiing on the lake with my best friend, Janna. I remember playing in a huge dirt pile where my sister got ringworm because we filled up our pants with dirt so we looked like a fat cat. (I wish I could show you the image in my head, it is hilarious.) I remember winning a bicycle at a local movie theatre and then 3 weeks later it being stolen from our garage. I remember following around the ice cream truck on our bikes (not the new one, it was stolen, remember?) and not ever telling my mom where I was because she always seemed to know.

Utah: I lived with my grandparents for a bit – my grandfather a Baptist preacher. I remember going to church every Sunday & Wednesday and loving it. I remember reciting the 23rd Psalm in front of the church at age 7 and being terrified but so proud. I remember sleepovers with my friends. I remember meeting Sarah from Alaska and thinking she was the coolest person ever. (We bonded over Goosebumps books & a video game called ToeJam & Earl.) I remember public swimming pools & Mormons. I remember seeing my mom again for the first time after nearly a year. She was holding gingersnap cookies and pushing my sister on a swing. I remember living in an underground apartment that we called “The Dungeon.”

Arizona: I remember cousins & uncles. I remember tarantulas. I remember being bullied by a boy named Tim. And taco sauce being squirted all over my fancy pink & purple shirt on purpose during recess. I remember eating my first vegetarian sandwich (so weird, that in 5th grade I had a friend who was a vegetarian) and sleeping over on a trampoline. I remember crying when I was told we were moving to…

Kansas: I remember middle school dances. Lifelong friends. I remember having purple hair & first boyfriends. I remember my first kiss. I remember falling in love with theatre. I remember sadness & tears. I remember living in a pink house on a dead end street. I remember playing on the internet chat rooms for the first time. I remember feeling confused when the ‘popular’ girls started trying to hang out with our group of friends. I remember seeing Titanic. Again. And again. And…again. I remember feeling smart & capable & loved by not only some of my closest friends who had seen me & my family at our worst but by teachers as well.

Texas: We moved back to Texas right before I began high school. I remember becoming best friends with Janna again. And late night phone calls to boys where I was forced to sing Barbie Girl over and over and over again. But you know, always as the voice of Ken. I remember band practices. I remember proms & boyfriends. I remember yearbook. I remember being mascot. I remember people telling me dating Alfred was a mistake. (Showed you mofos, didn’t I!) I remember holidays, weddings, births… I remember everything from the past 10+ years I’ve been here on Texas soil.

So, those are the places I come from – but really, I think I mostly come from my memories I take away from those places. I learned to be kind to the new kid in school. I learned to stand up for myself. I learned that being funny & sarcastic were excellent diversion tools. I learned that if you give people a chance, even those ‘nerdy’ people that no one likes, you’ll meet some amazing people and learn some amazing things in your life.

And then, one day, you’ll get to pass on all that knowledge, all that learning to one very precious little girl. I wouldn’t change a place or a thing to where I came from. Because without all that – the good or the bad – I wouldn’t be who I am and who I want to be.