Breakfast at the Uptown Cafe...

I'm home stateside now for the summer, and as always there's a transitioning process.  No matter how many times I come back there's always an 'excess overload' when I come to America. Then, like always, I pull back into the driveway of my childhood home.  The road I take is the same, the air smells again like fresh cut grass and corn, and my front porch welcome's me with open arms for the first inaugural summer session on the swing. Suddenly all that shock is gone, I don't feel like an alien in my own country, and I'm once again Sarah Braun from Morrisonville--'you know Diana Rosenthal's daughter, one of Kenny and LaDonna's grandkids.'

One of the advantages of being gone is that each time I come back, I appreciate the place I was grown that much more. I talk a lot about taking mental snapshots and vividly recording moments in your life. I've been back for 2 days, and I have been filling my memory bank non-stop-- walking in the door with my mom to find my uncle had left home grown sweet corn on the kitchen table. He knows how much I love it (and yes my community is the kind that doesn't always lock their doors. It's a beautiful thing.); Meeting my childhood best friend's new son for the first time, and feeling so much love for that sweet beautiful child the moment I laid eyes on him; and today having an early 7am breakfast with my 84-year-old grandpa at the "Uptown Cafe" while he sits with his fellow community institutions and talks about the who's who and the what's what going on, or the latest claims they've got to review on farmers' crops, or even next week's town picnic/fair.

I had a realization this morning as I'm talking with these men that saw me grow from a baby to a young woman, and it was bittersweet. I cherish this morning with my grandpa, watching him laugh or curse in the same sentence about using the computer, calling the waitress by name as she refills both our coffee mugs.  I don't know how many more I'll get, and I am so aware how blessed I am to have this moment and this morning. How lucky I am to have grown up in such a loving supportive community. Yes, maybe my town is a little like Mayberry, but they take care of their own no matter how long you've been away. It's always like you've never left.

So maybe this time around I'll say that I'm appreciating life from a different angle. It's not the new adventures I've taken or the ones I plan on having. But it's my origins that have stopped me in my tracks and overwhelmed me with the urgency and transient qualities of life. Maybe you may think 26 is too young an age to have anything wise to say, but even in these last 2 weeks I've learned some important life lessons. I've learned that being true to yourself has more facets than I ever imagined, and that it applies to every aspect of life. If we forget that, it is so easy to lose ourselves no matter how hard we've worked to find it. And then we lose sight of what we really want in this life. It's also okay to want things that most others are afraid to want, and to be vocal about it even if what that is has some small town tendencies. Who cares. Embrace all of those parts of you--where you are, where you want to go, and most importantly where you've come from. They shape our lives, and mine is one that I think I'm finally starting to understand.