goodbye

It's hard to know what to say in a time like this, with so many transitions taking place and life as I know it coming to an end. It's even harder to know what to say in such a public forum, with aunts and grandmas and real life friends reading.

We leave in a week. The movers are coming tomorrow and we'll stay with our parents for six days: my mom's for a few and then his. We have a bunch of goodbye lunches and dinners and a party and then next Tuesday morning, we'll pull out of Spencerport with our truck/motorcycle/SmartCar combo and head south to Richardson, Texas.

I'm thankful for everyone that is making it hard to leave. For everyone who loves us so much that they're encouraging us even though it's going to hurt them too. After growing up in western New York for 22 years, I do have roots here. I denied it for a while, as a teenager wanting to get as far away as possible, but now I see it. I have roots in this city, the one that I've stared at from the 490 bridge a thousand times, as we've driven in to see our friends, go to dinner, visit a festival. Everywhere we go, there's someone I know and almost everywhere we go, I know how to get there. Ben doesn't believe me half of the time, but I know my way around this city. Especially after staying here for college [and meeting my husband], this place finally feels like home.

But it's time to get going. To try something new and to make a new city home. We have some time at our new place before I start my job and I think we'll take that chance to explore our new town. To go for walks and find new places to eat and to settle in. I have no doubts that we'll find our groove and we'll make that place our home too.

But for now, I'm taking everything in here. I'm taking advantage of the fact that most of my family lives within a 20 minute radius and we're spending time with everyone before we go. We said goodbye to a best friend yesterday, as he left for a summer of traveling before grad school, and I'm sure we'll say goodbye to our other friends this weekend, in the good, old-fashioned stumble across Rochester way. Right now I'm sitting on my front porch writing this as I listen to the earlybirds sing because I know that 7 am in Texas might even be too hot for this. I'm going to finish this post, walk two blocks to get coffee from my favorite cafe in town, and I'm going to come home to wake up my sweet husband and get to packing. I may not love this town enough to stick around forever, but I certainly love it enough to be sad about leaving. This place has been home for all of my years so far and how do you say goodbye to home?