home(s) sweet home

Every fall I have the sudden need to read L.M. Montgomery*. This usually means Anne of the Island - the book that gave 14-year-old-me the unrealistic idea that college is a time when you'll start to become a better version of yourself, enjoy learning and studying hard, find life-long friends, create a home for yourself for the first time, and everything will be exciting and homey at the same time. And maybe I should credit the book in part, because college was all of that for me.

My tiny closet room in the house I shared with my four best friends. It really was a closet - it looks slightly bigger because it was L-shaped, so the narrow part is where I'm standing to take the picture and was about the width of the bed. And I begged the other girls to let me have it and wouldn't have changed a thing.

I was starting it again for the umpteenth time yesterday, and this quote hit home [ughhh horrible yet unintentional pun]: “I wonder if it will be—can be—any more beautiful than this,’ murmured Anne, looking around her with the loving, enraptured eyes of those to whom ‘home’ must always be the loveliest spot in the world, no matter what fairer lands may lie under alien stars.” See we're moving this week, and as always happens, I'm getting very sentimental. Of course the most important thing about my home is who I share it with, but dang it the places themselves become important too.

This isn't our first home together (leaving that one was predictably tricky, too), but it's hosted some great get-togethers. We've celebrated birthdays and holidays here. It was our place to come and recharge in the middle of job stress. We finally got the puppy that other landlords had denied us! And it's where we first started thinking about our family as more than just the two of us.

I know I'm going to be sad when we leave. I just need to summon the Anne-ishness the next morning to make sure I get excited about whatever adventure is next - she never forgets that part.

*If you've only read the Anne series, do yourself a favor and also read the Emily trilogy, The Blue Castle, and The Tangled Web. All so good!