I went home this past week.
I did the younger part of my growing up in California, but my pre-teen and teenage years were in Pocatello, Idaho, and that place is my home.
I'm not exactly sure why I decided to go, but it amazes me how much the memories take me over when I go there.
Driving in I see my middle school, and I am reminded of running the mile 7:31 in 8th grade, being so proud.
I get off the exit and remember all the mornings I drove to seminary staying at my dad's house half of junior year.
I drive by the gas station and can see myself stepping off the shuttle last semester and being welcomed with so much love.
Up Olympus I picture the hundreds of times that I have run up that hill, the good days and the bad.
I pass the neighborhood of Sun Valley Way where two of my best friends lived in high school.
My grandma's house on Golden Gate reminds me of all our long talks about growing up in her southern life, and my Idaho life..surprisingly we have a lot in common.
Highland High School will always look exactly the same. I can see me and my team, I can see speeding back from Taco Bell at lunch, I can see myself in the halls smiling at the boys, I can see being walked home my freshman year by my best friend, I can see riding my yellow bike.
I drive further down past the soccer fields, past the road of a boy I loved.
I drive past Hiskey where we first lived, and can see my family being taught by missionaries.
I see the dirt road, my favorite place to run.
I see me and my mom walking up it Sunday evening with our fat cats panting to keep up with us.
I see Gary Street and remember how awesome it is that the lead singer of my favorite band has the same name as my home.
I see so many kids playing outside, they always are.
I see the grass ditch, where everyone hangs out no matter how old you are.
I see my 13 year old self riding my bike down it, I see myself 15 year old self crying at night there, I see myself lying there the night before I moved never wanting to leave.
I see the home of the grumpy, old Mr. Thomas who thinks I am eternally a slut and a bad example to the neighborhood.
I see my front yard and remember all the otter pops I ate there, and lying there after church underneath the trees.
I see my old car and am reminded of how much I hated that thing, but how many fun times it let me have.
I see that driveway where I have said goodbye and ended so many chapters of my life.
I walk in and it smells the same. Everything is the same. We have animals everywhere, the kitchen is a mess, Bailey comes running into my arms, Sidney is too busy talking to her boyfriends to notice me, I hear my mom say is my baby home?
I know all these roads, all these memories so well.
Pocatello life really doesn't change. People will always be playing soccer on those fields, those families will always stay in those same houses, their kids will marry people they've known since grade school, their mothers and sisters are on the high school wall for prom queen, their brothers and fathers on the wall for basketball and golf. People will go to the Highland football game on Friday night at the Holt, watch movies in their basements, and swim at Ross park.
I have loved and missed this lifestyle.
But one thing I have realized is that I can't live here forever. & I am glad I left, because I have become someone I never could have if I stayed.
I am happy to get a few more carefree months in Pocatello this summer before my real life starts, and now that I have grown up a little, I just hope I can appreciate the time I have left there more than I did in high school.
Happy conference Saturday
Loves
Lake
