"Home again, home again, jiggety-jig" (nursery rhyme)

I grew up as a child in the northeast, but grew to feel Virginia was my second home when I spent college and the years raising my son in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Now, I live in NC, and I love it here, but I will always think of Virginia as my second home.

The Valley has such spectacularly stunning landscapes with vistas that stretch out as far as the eye can see. Its history is rich, and I have yet to find another part of the world that surpasses its beauty.

When I lived in the Charlottesville area, there was Monticello, Jefferson’s lovely home, as well as Michie Tavern and Ash Lawn, the home of James Monroe. Across the mountains from Charlottesville is Harrisonburg, where I taught at James Madison University. The rural outskirts of the town are home to Mennonites, and one is still likely to see horses and buggies ambling through town.

I thought, when I first moved to Virginia, after living close to the metropolitan NY area, that I would not feel at home. I love New York, and loved living in the northeast while I was there. Certainly, I imagined I would miss the pace of life in the northeast. Instead, I found home.

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.”
(-John Ed Pierce)