I left my heart in the South with
people whose voices are thick as honey
and who walk even slower than that.
Where rain is beautiful and
snow is a blessing, to be celebrated,
not to be pushed by and through
like it had never once meant something magic.

My heart lies on the Grounds where my
feet got soaked through by this very snow,
where my straightened hair was made
curly with the flakes that melted in it.

There, a part of me I’d left curled
up for ages straightened up and burst free.
This ball of fear, of pressure, of not being good enough,
was gone and finally, finally, I was home.

Among the arches and columns and gardens
of this beautiful place, it’s the people
I found a home in. The people whose honeyed
voices extended far beyond their vocal chords,
the people whose slow pace did not hinder
the eagerness to befriend.

I left my heart in the South at
the University of Virginia, and in
122 days 1 hour 36 minutes and 32 seconds,
when I return to retrieve it, I’ll finally be home.

When it rains so that
the radio drowns in the sky’s music,
the world is empty of all other sounds,
the sides of streets are awash in
what couldn’t help but let go,

I, too, feel myself getting washed away,
pulled by the ebb and flow of what
used to be sky.

Raindrops trace paths in my cheeks
and make waterfalls from my chin.
As clouds collect in gutters,
I submerge in what
couldn’t help but let go.

Do you remember
Prince Charming and a castle with
spiral staircases, long nights beneath
the stars with best friends,
a college campus in the perfect college town,
all of these details the substance of the future you imagined
yourself into so many years ago?

This sprawling college campus of dreams
is now reality, filled with hundreds of
potential Prince Charmings, laden with many
gothic and cobblestoned castles. And in these dreams,
the best friends you lay beneath the stars with
sit squished up together in your dorm room,
laughing and smiling and too good to be true.

This future is not quite here yet but you’re
getting a peek into it, now and then.
You remember childhood dreams of going to college,
and now you’re almost gone, you remember wishing it would come,
and now it’s coming, you remember wondering where you belong,
and now you’re belonging,
but what you don’t remember
is realizing that you can thrive not just here,
but there, and there, and anywhere.

There is more than one Prince Charming,
there are more than these best friends,
there is a campus different than this but yet
that you can feel yourself at home on.

Home is not just a dream you grew up in .
Home is any dream you choose to belong to,
and remember, that is more than enough of
a future to be happy in.