Home is where your heart is....

For those of you who don't know me very well, I haven't lived in Utah all my life. In fact, about half of the years I have spent on this planet have been in Utah, and the other half was spent where my heart always has been. The west coast.

Oregon.

That is where I sit at this current moment. I feel... Nostalgia. An overwhelming calm. I can't get over how much I love this place... Everything about it.

This is where I grew up. This is where I learned how to ride a bike, how to spit, how to play in the mud and get dirty... Where it was okay to come in from playing outside, covered in mud and dirt. It meant you had fun.

This is where my love for the ocean and anything outdoors developed.

It was here I realized all the good in people, before I learned how much bad really existed.

Some say, once you leave home, you can never return again. But here is what I say. Home is where your heart is. It may not be an actual house or location, but a general area. It is here that I breathe deeper. I smell the rain in the air and the rich soil, the green in the trees. Green is EVERYWHERE! And I don't want it any other way. It's been warm, but not so scorching hot that you can't get outside and still play. I love it.

I love this place. I keep telling my childhood friend that I love it, and that I feel like a fool for saying it so much, but I LOVE this place. Did I mention that I love it here? Love love love love love love it here.

I have had it in my head that I wanted to come here to have a family. This is where I want my daughter to grow up. The knowledge I gained here does not compare to what I have seen in Utah. The quality of life and education here seems better.

I can't explain it. It's just different here.

I can give you a million different reasons for me to move here. The list gets longer and longer the longer I stay. There is something in the air, something in the water.... Something.

I love it here. I can breathe deeper, and I am constantly smiling.

But what happens when I go back to Utah? Will I snap back to reality and realize that Oregon isn't the place for me?

For the longest time, I have wanted to move back to this place. I walked around places that I used to play... Earlier today, I was at a baby shower for my best friend in the house we grew up in.... I stood in the backyard that seemed so large to me at the time, and realized how small it was. The treehouse is still tucked away in the branches of that large tree in the backyard, but the swing that I broke is still balled up at the base. Some of the rooms in the house had changed, but it was still the same... the feelings were still the same.

So when will I realize that this really isn't where I want to be? Or is it where I should be? What keeps pulling me back here?

No sales tax?
The air?
Good friends and quality people?
Abundance of water?
All the green?
Memories?

Nostalgia?

I guess we'll find out what happens when I get back to Utah.

No matter what, home will always be where the heart is.... And my heart is drawn here.

Maybe my knight in shining whatever is waiting over here... With the house and the yard and the dog and the white picket whatever. Only time will tell, dear friend.... Only time will tell.