This is my new apartment in Seattle. This picture doesn't show off the incredible view of downtown, the Space Needle, Queen Anne, and Lake Union. Nor does it pinpoint the Capitol Hill location I'm nestled in within walking distance to almost anything I need and/or want. It also doesn't tell the complete story of my last five months like getting a job, being scared out of my mind, eating delicious food, getting lost time after time (in more ways than one), or how lucky I've been during this pilgrimage. It does, however, convey the coziness of my new home, which feels more and more like home every day.
Home. What a concept. A few weeks ago I went home to Minnesota. It was fun, but strange. Strange that everything seemed to have stayed the same while I felt like a completely different person. I kept wondering how things could have changed so much for me, but stayed so much the same elsewhere. Within three days, I felt like I had never left and easily fell back into the familiar. When I flew home at the end of that long weekend, I kept having to remind myself that flying home now meant going to Seattle and not the other way around. But I was headed back to my new home. Back to Tim and Arlo. Back to Seattle. And it felt right.
Tim picked this ivy the week we moved to Seattle. It's lived in a thin vase on our dining room table ever since. It seems happy there. If the ivy can thrive in a new environment, so can I.
