As I write this, it's 10:30 a.m. and the temperature has already soared into the mid-90s. Texas has succeeded in completely throwing off my internal temperature..the mid-90s feels normal by now. I return to the North in a little under a week (not that Chicago's much cooler at the moment). However, there's at least hope for some relief from the heat there.
I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to a cold, rainy, grey day.
I'm also excited to get home. Chicago somehow managed to become that for me in four short (packed) months. I miss the people there, I miss my apartment, I miss the social life, and I miss having a city at my doorstep. When I get back, I have eight whole days to enjoy it before I leave again:)
Somehow, this summer has turned into a series of trips away from home. My trip to San Antonio, which is nearly over, is the longest by far (at six and a half weeks). A little over a week after I return to Chicago, I'll leave for DC for a couple days for a faith-rooted organizing training that Sojourners is holding. I get back from that on the 17th and leave for Charleston on the 18th for nearly a week to see my parents. Then I'll be back in Chicago for three weeks - hopefully heading to western New York for a long weekend somewhere in there! - before going to Indiana. I'll spend five days in Indiana for a leadership training/retreat with IIRON (Indiana & Illinois Regional Organizing Network) in preparation for my internship next year. The day after I get back from that (Aug. 18th) I fly out to Seattle, where I'll meet up with my friend Ellie (from North Park) and possibly our friend Sam to drive Ellie's car to Chicago for the fall semester. Then we drive over 2,000 miles to get back to Chicago by the 21st, since we need to help out with Orientation for the new students...
And then my fall semester begins.
Just like that, my whirlwind of a summer will be closed out and I'll revert to school-mode. Until then, there's a lot of fun to be had and many, many places to go:) I'll be traveling to or through about a dozen states and seeing all sorts of people I love and have missed.
Once in a while, I get a thought in the back of my mind that living nomadically isn't practical, it isn't "financially astute", and it must be a phase, because really, who lives this way forever? I'm sure as I get older I'll have times when I'm more rooted and grounded in one place, one community, one neighborhood, one set of friends/family/neighbors, but I can't imagine giving up the traveler within. Without even meaning to - without realizing it, even - I filled my summer with trips and adventures away from home because I love that and I want that. Although I call Chicago 'home' and before that considered Jamestown / Bemus / Camp Mission Meadows / Allegheny College home, part of my 'home' is also on the road. It's grounded in change, new sights and people, discovery, new understandings of what's beautiful and inspiring - and that is something I find when I travel.
Home is great, but the road still owns a part of me.
