You Finally Made It!

Today I took my sister and her boyfriend to the airport, so they could do the Vegas getaway. While I was there, I saw something so incredibly sweet. Maybe it was just sweet to me, maybe I was reading too much into it, but I loved it and it made me think a little.

There was a little old lady, tiny frame, skinny, short haircut, looked rather frail, had to have been in her 70s or 80s. This lady was walking in front of the airport terminals searching for someone. She was holding a sign that was equally as big as she was, you can tell she made it all by herself. In big red letters, the sign said:

"Welcome Caroline! You FINALLY made it to California!!!"

She painted a bright yellow sun in the top left corner, and a bunch of blue waves at the bottom. (I wish I got a picture!)

Like I said, she was walking around searching for, I'm assuming, Caroline. And again, assuming, Caroline must be one of her old friends who always vowed she'd make it to sunny California some day, and today was that day.

It made me think a little more about where I live and how lucky I am to be here. To be born and raised in one of the most beautiful and sought after places in the world. I'm less than an hour away from Hollywood, about an hour from San Diego, in the heart of Orange County, 10 minutes from Disneyland, and another 10 from Newport Beach. I grew up going to places a lot of kids dream about. Songs were written about the beaches where I made sand castles with my sister. People from all over the world dream about and want to go to California. It is, after all, the Golden State!

So many people I knew growing up were dying to get out of here, only left wishing they could come home once they were gone. I, too, have made the outrageous claims to want to leave here... but then I realize how silly it is. Of course I want to leave here, everyone wants to leave their home now and again; that's what kids have a desire to do. I want to travel, I want to visit new places and say I've been "somewhere," but I really don't think I want to live anywhere else in the world. Granted, I haven't been to very many places, but I do know that I've never been anywhere I'd like to live, more than my hometown.

I know this isn't the place for everyone... I know so many people who absolutely love where they live, and I think that's fantastic! I know there is good and bad in every city, in every county, but to find the beauty where you live is something you hold in your heart. I grew up here, my parents and grandparents grew up here or moved here with their children. My parents went to the schools I went to. I met my husband here and had our babies in the same hospital my mother was born. That's something really special! It's history, MY history, the history of my family and our family, right here... we don't have to go looking for it. I love that.

I really do love where I live, and now that we've had our babies here and I know we'll be raising our family here, I feel like I really have FINALLY made it!

It's good to be home, and I know there's no place like it.

Stay Golden, California!