It's a rainy Friday near the end of July, and I'm in a car heading East from Chicago with a dear friend of mine. We pass most of the time through Indiana and western Ohio catching up on our summers, then she drifts into sleep through central and eastern Ohio (not exactly an interesting stretch of highway..). She wakes up as evening starts to fall, the weather clears, and we near the western border of PA.
The tiny, barely noticeable swells of northern Ohio morph into real hill as we cross into Pennsylvania. The combination of hills, forests, and rustic farms sprinkled through the landscape we're passing through makes me feel deep waves of nostalgia for the homes I'm heading towards. Dusk falls and fireflies appear twinkling by the roadside as we drive on. Mist starts to settle into the valleys and dips in the wooded, hilly land around us, and I'm suddenly struck by how badly I've missed all this.
We spend the night in Meadville, PA with our friend and mentor Mollie in her house near our college's campus. In all, we spend about 11 hours with her and her family (most of which are spent sleeping), but it's good to reconnect with them, even through it's brief. The next morning finds us on the road again, this time heading North for western NY. By 10 AM, I'm standing in my fake parents' house in Bemus Point, and Jenna's back on the road, heading to a wedding near Rochester.
And just like that, I've reappeared in the two most significant homes I've had so far.
My short stay near Allegheny's campus in Meadville hardly does justice to the amount of time I lived there or the significant changes I went through there. However, I got three and a half days in Bemus and Jamestown, and I got to see dozens of people (and places) that have helped form me over my years living there. Here's my take on what those homes left me with.
Allegheny College:
College isn't about the classroom. Really. I'm not sure if I knew that going into school, but I certainly did after I left. College is about the relationships I built, the out-of-classroom experiences I had, the choices I made on what to pursue and what to care about, and taking those first hesitant steps towards the kind of life I wanted. The choices I made in college were generally intertwined and influenced by my faith in God and what He's put on my heart - a desire to serve, a passion for social justice, a strong sense of my identity and who I am that gives me the confidence to lead a different kind of life. My time at Allegheny also left me with the understanding that pursuing knowledge, wisdom, and what the "right" thing is for me to do with my life is a messy process filled with doubts, questioning, reassessing. I will never feel completely settled, satisfied, or content in who I am, what I am about, and where I'm heading, but I will make the choice to consistently seek God in all of that.
Jamestown / Bemus Point, NY:
It's nowhere near possible to understand all the ways a person's hometown has shaped and formed them, what it's taught them. I'll keep this as simple as I can, though the influence of this place on me is complex and far-reaching. Growing up here taught me perseverance and to root for the underdog (except when it comes to the NY Yankees...that's a whole different story.) It's taught me to love the simple things and to get outside whenever it's nice out, cause it's probably going to rain or snow later that day.
There are countless people here who have loved me, taken care of me, taught me, challenged me, affirmed me, and walked alongside me. It's the people in this home who I miss more than any place or thing in western NY.
I've come (and am still coming) to see the good in the place I'm from, while choosing to move onto other homes that are far from western NY. I have already lived other places - Allegheny College, Washington DC, Charleston, SC, San Antonio, TX and now Chicago - and will probably end up choosing many others. However, there's only one place I'm from, and that place will always be reflected in me in some small way.
