The best thing about coming home is knowing it will always be home.

I’d never really missed my family when I was in college. I was only 2 and a half hours away, and I’d come home once a month and see them,but it always seemed more like a chore. But this time, I was very very eager to come home. 

The warm weather, the food, the laughter, the warm weather,the accents, the hugs—did I mention the warm weather? Lol. In Illinois, it is rainy/freezing and cold, like cold-cold. The week before the week I left, I experienced my first snow and ice storm. I had to drive in snow. I woke up in the morning and it was 3 degrees.Three. Three. I worked my booty off to get all of my work done so that I wouldn’t have anything to worry about during my week home.

And I get here and the environment here is wet, 50-70 degrees and everything is dead—just as it should be in Louisiana in December.So great

Good God. My co-workers will not be able to understand me when I get back. I catch myself sounding more and more Cajun as the week goes,and I love it. I’m excited about all of the Louisiana gifts I bought for my co-workers. Chocolate covered pecans, Community Coffee and Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning—I know how to pass a good time, yea.

The past few days have been great—hanging out with the family, exchanging gifts with friends, relaxing and eating, a lot. My mom has cooked gumbo sausage and vegetable soup, but she also plans to make me an okra gumbo and then a stuffed chicken and rice dressing. I’ve also been filling up on Spicy McChickens, Sonic Dr. Pepper and mozzarella sticks, Southside Bakery hamburgers and Raising Canes Chicken Fingers. I’m going to gain 10 pounds this week.

Looking at the days I’ve had thus far, I can happily admit that I don’t want to go back to work, but I wouldn’t want to stay here. Rayce and I talked about being in my college town, and how college was great—but we’ve moved past that now. It was good while it lasted, but now we’re on to bigger and better things. I’m going to miss always miss Louisiana, but that doesn’t mean I want to stay here.

One of the sadder parts of this week is saying goodbye to my friends. Mostly Leigh, because I’m used to saying goodbye to my old high school friends and seeing them months in between, but I’m not used to that with Leigh.It was sad to leave her today after hanging around her, but what was great about it was that it felt like it was just yesterday since I had last seen her.

It’s like that with the friends that I take time to see—Alyssa,Hannah and Gavin who I will see later this week. You don’t have to see each other every day, and you can go a few months without talking—but when you’re together—it’s like nothing ever changed.  Those are the keepers there, sha.

I know it’s going to be hard saying goodbye to my family on Saturday, but it must be done. I can’t only pray that my mom gets a job soon and will be able to afford to come see me for a change. I only have a limited supply of vacation days from work, so I can only travel here to see them every six months. I’ve done it once before, but I really don’t want to do it again.

That goes for my other significant people *cough, cough,Leigh, cough, cough*. Alyssa’s boyfriend is stationed in Missourri, so we’ve discussed meeting up in St. Louis one day, but I’m not sure if that will come to fruition. Hannah has the bebe, so that’s probably never going to happen.Gavin and Ben could possibly be in Chicago for some reason one day, and I could see them that way.

I’m so thankful for the time I’ve had to spend with my family and friends. You never really know how much they mean to you until you can’t be with them as easily as you wish.