Where I Come From

Alexandria, Virginia. The city I was born in. The city I frequented on hot, muggy Summer nights and crisp, chilly Winter evenings. It's the city (one of them) I went to school in and the city where much of my mom's side of the family is rooted and also buried in. In August, when I went home, it had been the longest since I had seen this town that borders Washington, D.C. and sits right on the Potomac River.

I fell in love with it all over again. The cobblestone streets, the rich history in every brick building you walk past, the stories that have been passed on to me about my ancestors. In the twenty-some years I lived in Northern Virginia, it changed and transformed every year. Trees were knocked down, government buildings were put up in their place, houses built one on top of the other. But I knew, for the most part, I could go to Old Town, Alexandria or into the Nation's Capitol and I'd see the sights I knew I could always count on.

I come from a mother born in the same town as I, and a father born at the Jersey Shore. My family, with our imperfections and all, come from a place of love and the belief to always do what is right.

I come from a neighborhood where we'd play outside until the sun went down and the lightning bugs came out.

I come from a home on a hill flooded with sunlight, surrounded by trees centuries and centuries old.

But most importantly to me, after all these years is that I come from a family with wonderful memories. Through all of life's ups and downs, its celebrations and losses, I have beautiful pictures to look back on, stories to laugh about, mementos in my childhood home that remind me that where I come from... it makes me who I am today. And for that, I am forever grateful.

This is the first entry of mine in the Blogtember series, hosted by Jenni. I hope you'll stop by again throughout the month of September :)