Homesick

Every so often I hit a wave of homesickness. It doesn't happen a lot. I mean, I've traveled away from home since I was 3 years old. I'd leave my parents for a weekend at Grandma's or a road trip with Grandma and the marching band (another story for another day) without so much as a backwards glance. I didn't cry, I didn't beg to go home, I liked being away. Don't get me wrong, I liked coming home. I love going home. But I guess you could say I've always had a bit of wanderlust in my soul. It's allowed me to travel all over the US and go to school away from home and live and work in Maine and New York and Louisiana and North Carolina.

I love North Carolina. I have friends here, I like my classes at NCSU, and I love my job at Duke. There are moments though where I wish I could transplant this whole experience to my mom's backyard in North Providence. Its the little things that get me. Seeing someone's birthday on my calendar or Jim & Beej posting video of Jack and Lila on Facebook and my my heart aches for a bit and I get a little weepy. It's hard sometimes being so far away from everyone that you hold so very dear.

For those of you who know the barest things about me, my family - my big, huge, Italian-American family - are pretty much all in Rhode Island and Southeast Mass. I grew up with my cousins. We'd spend weekends together just hanging around, making up dances, playing games, swimming in grandma's pool. My aunts and uncles are the best. I love my parents and I have an awesome stepfamily. And here I sit on a long holiday weekend, reading about research methods and getting a little wistful about football seasons past where we'd all cheer on the Patriots or go to Auntie Lorri's for a soup party. My cousins have babies now and I'm missing watching them grow up. It's hard going home every few months and be a stranger to these little ones. Especially since I have no children of my own. I love my life, and I like the person I've become. I just get a little homesick every now and again.