Where I'm Happy

There are two questions that are unavoidable at the beginning of the semester.
1. What's your name?
2. Where are you from?

The first is easy. My name is Emily. Simple, sweet & common. I never hesitate on that question.

The second question is pretty much my Everest. Yes, I have trouble figuring out where I'm from. I was born in New York and many people who ask this question are looking for that answer. Then there is Germany. I love Germany. I really, really, really, really do! I've spent most of my life there and so many of my best memories come from there. I should be a lot more attached to it than I am. But there's one place that I love more than any other. New York.

Just a few weeks ago, I was visiting New York. I nearly cried when I had to leave. My last night there, I was sitting on a stone wall at West Point overlooking the Hudson. I could see the place where we went for a picnic when I was little, the place where my dad would take me on the way home from daycare to look at the water, the place where my mom and I took goofy pictures one summer, and the place where I learned potato salad did, in fact, have eggs in it. When I was looking out over these places, all of these memories came flooding back to me. Behind me was the field I used to run through to play in the sprinklers...even though it says not to walk on the grass. There's the Military Academy that I was convinced was a castle where the princesses lived and I, too, would live there one day. If it were clearer out, I knew I'd be able to see the bridge that I used to think the sun hid under during the night and the moon hid under during the day. Keep in mind I was three when I had that theory.

I kept thinking about how nobody can ruin New York for me. Or at least nobody has yet. There hasn't been any drama or fights between friends. There haven't been any stupid boys doing stupid things or horrible girls being all...witchy (not the word I wanted to use). It's a happy place that I never want to lose. It's mine.

I was not wanting to move from that wall.

"Emily, are you ready to go?"

"I don't want to leave."

"Come on, we have to pick up Parker."

"No."

"Fiine. I'll take more pictures & then we are leaving."

*10 minutes later*

"Are you ready?"

"Nooooo."

"Emiilly! You'll be back soon!"

"I don't care!"

And that's when I got pulled off the wall.

You're probably thinking I was being a baby at that point but it was my moment. New York is my home. It's where I'm happy.