“You really do love this town, don’t you?” I thought about that for a second. Anytime someone had asked me that previously, I answered with a sharp, resounding no. It felt like a defense mechanism—a way to avoid how much I missed it when I was gone and to make leaving easier when I came back. But as I had been revisiting these places that I had called my own, I felt different. Or maybe I felt the same, and this was the first time I had gotten out of my own way enough to see it. This place built me—for better or worse. It was the place I left to find myself, but it was also the place I came
...more
