Here and There

A few days before going home for Christmas vacation, I made a trip to a certain red store looking for an everyday product I needed but wasn’t finding stocked at my usual blue store the past two or three visits.

I was frustrated and exhausted and the season was starting to wear on me. The consumerism was avidly outshining the festivities I typically enjoy. I calmed myself remembering this always seems to happen the week before Christmas, unless you have already snuggled into the site of your merriment.

I walked through the front doors of the red store musing to myself. Why is there such a rivalry between blue and red? I was comforted to see a mild difference in the lighter crowd at the red store though my time of day may have had something to do with it. The rest of the excursion left me with a mindful of giggles.

I made myself chuckle when I thought; the blue store people wear an array of jumpsuits. Then I passed a woman buying eggs and laughed at her velour jumpsuit. OBVIOUSLY a difference between the blue and red store.

Well, I considered, the blue store has that fast food restaurant in the front of it. Maybe that’s why all those people… Then I looked up long enough to see this fast food restaurant instead.

I thought of the blue store’s populace allowing their children to run amuk screaming. Then I walked passed the fitting room of the red store and listened as a sullen teenager addressed her mother, in no hushed tones, as an “out of style bitch.” I shuddered.

What is the difference between here and there?

I attended a party in Utah before I left for vacation. “Christmas Under the Mistletoe” and it was one of the most fun parties I’ve been to in awhile. I looked around at these people I’ve been spending the bulk of my time with lately and I was happy. We kissed. We laughed. We took pictures. And my favorite, we talked.

I had been homesick the past couple months (something I rarely feel anymore being ten years out of the gate) and in that moment, I felt my soul eased.

I went home to Pennsylvania for the break. The day after getting in, I attended a party with my high school friends. I was super excited to see the people I once held as the best friends I would ever make. We laughed. We took pictures. And my favorite, we talked.

The homesickness I had been harboring hit with the force of a tidal wave and I felt I couldn’t return once more. I had to ask myself.

What is the difference between here and there?

I hammered it all out in my mind. The pros and the cons. I even pitted the types of people I associate with in either place against one another. The diversity remaining acute. And you know what I came up with?

People I went to high school with ARE some of the best friends I will ever make. But so is my college crowd and everywhere I ever turn, I will always be confronted with a paradigm of dichotomies peppering why I love and loathe anything or anywhere.

So what is the difference between here and there? So far, nothing. Just a whole lot of various somethings put together differently. However, I’m open to re-evaluations.