Home!

I'm finally home!!

As dearly as I love Vienna and the people I met there, it feels so good to be home. I saw my family a little bit over Christmas, but I haven't been with them in my home town for over a year. And now I'm back! It feels so sweet, so simple, and so good to be with my family in our most intimate setting, our home.

A few things have changed, but I'm getting used to that now. There's new curtains in the living room, a new dishwasher and a new dryer. My youngest brother shot up in height, and one of my younger sisters is almost as tall as I am! My mom didn't put up much of a fight when my sister and I asked for something special at the store today... but I guess it helps that we were asking for raspberries and blackberries instead of more Barbies, and so that was easier to consent to. Other, slightly perceptible, changes revolve around the fact that we're all getting older and maturing, and so our relationships with each other are also changing. We're sending another sibling off to college, so there's a sense of increasing anticipation with that.

It's nice to have a small break from school and work, but that's not where I felt most of the pressure from being gone so long. My tension and soul-stretching came from not feeling as connected with my family. It feels great to plug in and recharge my sense of belonging, love, and identity with them, which was harder to come by when I was thousands of miles away at school. It's not the environment that I grew up in, because circumstances and people change over time, but the sense of mutual family has stayed the same, even if its dynamics have changed. We still tease each other, tickle each other, use bigger-than-usual words, and laugh at everyone's silly blonde moments. Families are also an effective place for observation and reflection, which I'm doing a bit of.

So, I'm really enjoying my time at home surrounded by (most of) my family (I have one brother not at home). They're not perfect, and neither am I, but we all love each other, and after all the teasing and "putting into place" is done, we've got each other's best interests at heart. We're family. There's a lot in that statement, but ultimately, it's good. There's so much potential for greatness in families. It's what we're here for :)