To the places I’ve been lucky enough to call home, if even just for a few months:

Oh, how thankful I am for you.

Thank you for connections and reconnections, for a point of comparison, for all-embracing acceptance.

Thank you for grounding me. Thank you for warmth and love and foundation.

Thank you for growth, for seasons, for failure, for success.

Thank you for rivers and belltowers and history and ruins. Thank you for the joy of hard work with my hands.

Thank you for narrow paths, for independence, for reduction, for direction. Thank you for hard-won proof that I am getting there.

Thank you for opportunity, for expectations, for introductions.

Thank you for horizons of big possibilities, and greater things ahead, for stretching and stepping up, in all its forms. Thank you for daily surprises. Thank you for being home right now, for the foreseeable future.

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With each move, I trade a bit of myself for each location I leave. And I’m better for it.