Can you ever go home? I have often wondered this and have spent a considerable amount of time in my life reminiscing and wondering "what if..." This is not to say that I live in the past or even long for it, not true. I just like to remember where I have been and the mistakes I have made, hoping to never repeat them. If only it were that easy.

I have only lived in two cities in my entire life. Whittier, CA (where I grew up and where I live now) and La Porte, IN (where I spent my teenage years, went to college, fell in love, got married, and had my first two children). Yesterday, as I drove down Johnson Road into the city limits of LaPorte, IN, flashes of my past flew before me. I remembered watching the fireworks over the lake. I remembered where my former husband and I negotiated to buy a boat. I remembered dancing in front of the bandstand on a warm summer evening. I remembered swimming as far out into Stone Lake as I could.

I saw the hospital where my first child was born. The grocery store where a senior citizen cut me off in the check-out line because I was young and she could get away with it. I saw the Civic Center where I went to prom, the first house I owned, where I bought my first car and had my first accident. Life. It happens and it happens fast.

I had dinner with my dear friends, Jerry and Maggie. They were like a second set of parents to me, loving and supporting my from my youth through young adulthood. Not only a wonderful friend, but Maggie was also my very first boss. I learned to not be afraid at trying something new, to feel free to test the waters by achieving the same results but using different techniques and to never give up.
Jerry was my first taste of obsessing over technology - the first VCR, video games, and computers in our circle of friends. I owe much gratitude to these two special people and I am very glad to have had an opportunity to see them and spend a little time...

The years pass so quickly, too quickly to even recount but they are embedded in our make-up, in who we become, and in how we react and respond to life and the challenges we face and hopefully, overcome. Everything we pass through shapes who we are. Continuously.  Welcome to life...

by rayannethorn