"That's when you move away"

“Are you sad to leave?”

“Are you ready to leave?”

They are such seemingly simply questions to answer-Yes or No. However, as I find myself frequently needing to answer these questions, I struggle to give an adequate answer.

As I sit on my fire escape looking at the New York skyline that has become so familiar, I discover a part of me will be sad to leave the sights and sounds that have become familiar here: the lady on her stoop feeding the neighborhood cats, the sounds of the bus routes outside, and the noise of the children at the Jubilee Center.

Over the past eleven months, Jersey City and Hoboken have become familiar and I have found a place here with my roommates, fellow interns and the Jubilee Center. I will be sad to leave these relationships behind.

Yet, as I pack my bags and prepare to leave, I know a part of me is ready to leave and return to something familiar, to the things that I have known: the wide-open spaces of Northeast Iowa the people there that I love, the slower pace of life and the place called home.

This year has been full of laughter and tears, joys and challenges. It has been a year of building new relationships and strengthening existing ones. As I board my plane to fly back to the Midwest, I know I will be taking not only be my suitcases but also many wonderful memories from the good times and lessons learned from the challenges.

As usually, I think StoryPeople sums it up pretty well (I would just edited to read people and places):

I think you love people until you get to understand them, she said

& I said, what happens then?

& she said, o, that's when you move away.