My Alfresco

So because Easter (or for me, more like spring) is on the rise, I decided to spend the weekend at home....get outdoors, get some fresh air, and visit with the fam.

I never really fully appreciated my own home until I moved away from it. I am especially fortunate to have spent the majority of my growing up years in a beautiful countryside location, amidst numerous flower gardens and a several acre organic vegetable garden. Although don't get me wrong, I love the city (as I was just scoffing to my mom about how conservative, not to mention large, the people in my area are, and how I feel so much more comfortable and free to be myself, dress myself, and express myself in Philly), it's so nice to be able to have an equal appreciation for the country. If I had grown up in the city all my life, I don't feel that I would have the same attitude of the country's offerings, or the same perspective on life for that matter.

Much of my grade school years, I have to admit I was in agony from being in such desolate surroundings, and from having our local "city" be more like a McDonaldized suburbia. But now when I come home, I no longer see the country as a stale piece of bread, rather I see it as a fresh and exciting place of color, of beauty, of inspiration and life. I see my home in a whole new light, and thrive on all of the benefits of my surroundings. As much as the free, liberated, diverse city is a part of me, the country will always tenaciously hold a grip on my soul.

Back at college, rarely would I ever find myself waking up before 9, only to come downstairs and indulge on a fruit salad containing five differingly sweet, sour, and various colored fruits (of which only 2 half-assed versions are offered in my cafeteria). Never would I get to have the experience of engaging in a calmly instructed yoga class along the side of my mom, followed by a trip to develop some of my everly patient photography. Only to be proceeded by a trip to obtain some *Zico's coconut water, some Kambucha, and other nutrious snacks for college, that can only be easily obtained while at home. Finally ending with a healthy, delicious lunch (a rather unusual combination for a cheap college student in North Philly), followed by a swift run in idyllic temperature and setting, among blooming flowers and green, yes green, grass (another commodity of mine).

Yes, all of this luxury in one day! For these kind of experiences, I am able to excitedly look forward to coming home. Grass, food, and good company are some of my favorite things, and almost always do I get to have these experience when I am home. But college in the city has only just now brought all of this luxuriousness to my attention. It has opened my awareness to how fortunate I am to be able to experience the best of both worlds.

Although by the end of the weekend, I will be ready to go back to the exuberance of the city, I won't be leaving with an urgent or deprived state of being. I love that I am able to both love my home, and my home away from home (as of now, I'm not quite sure which one gets which label). And while I don't want to sprint through the last few weeks of college, I won't be leaving on the final day of my freshman year with the complete desire to sprint right back to north Philly. I don't need to dread coming home to a dirty city street, or a montonous Walmarted neigborhood, rather I have the advantage of looking forward to spending an easy, breezy, beautiful summer home.