Just Home.

Another day, another conversation with an old friend.  This time, it was someone I went to high school with here in town (all those years ago), and who, like me, made a beeline out of this burg as soon as that time could be put behind us.

We talked about that need to get out, and the lack of desire to never come back.  In her case, it's taken her far and wide - she's lived in every province west of Ontario, and travelled extensively.  Myself, it took me to the big city two hours south, and the odd trip within Canada.

We met in a coffee shop on the main drag.  She's came from her home in Manitoba.  I came from my home just down the street.  Along with the enjoyment of good friends catching up after too long a time apart, we talked a little about this town, about our love-hate relationship with it through the years.  How we'd come back to visit family, but avoid going out.  How we'd avoid coming back to visit family at all.  (Granted, in her case, well it's not really a quick drive from Calgary, after all.  My excuses through the years have been much flimsier.)  We talked about how those years are behind us both now.

A lot has changed about this town in the twenty years since we fled it at age 18.  But so have we.  For myself, when I first decided to return four years ago, those changes were difficult.  It was not the town I had left.

And that, it turns out, has been the secret.

This is truly not the town I left.  And so many of the things I left to get away from are no longer here: most importantly, my own perceptions of it.  The experiences of the wider world let me come back with new eyes, and a new heart.  This time, I chose to live in this town.  I chose to become part of the community here.

This is no longer the town that I lived in.  It is now, simply, home.