Can I be interesting without London? Probably not, but let's see.

And so it begins... the chronicling of my life without the twist of Europe to make it interesting. Let's see how this goes.

So it doesn't make sense for the name of this to be "A Term in London" anymore. Instead it is now "A Termin(a)l on Don."

Don't worry, he's not crushed or anything. He's just waiting for his flight.

So anyway. This post has a point.
Almost exactly a year ago, I was home in Minnesota, visiting my best friends, whom I hadn't seen since I moved to New Hampshire a year before (WHOA that sentence. Whatever, not fixing it). It is no secret this move was hard on me, and my first year away from my home and my friends was probably the hardest I've ever had. I didn't realize when I left Minnesota that I was truly LEAVING and so I didn't get the closure I needed. That was what the visit last year was for; I needed to say good-bye.
I touched down in the Minneapolis airport knowing and accepting I needed to do this, but is was still greatly overshadowed by excitement, understandably. I spent the three-hour flight wanting to get out and push the plane to get it to move faster (not bothering to think of, you know, Physics.) while listening to the special "Minnesota" playlist I had set up on my Ipod. (Yes, I'm the person who does stuff like that.)

As I was walking through the airport to baggage claim, I was greeted and ecstatic to see familiar markings I grew up with: Caribou Coffee, Boundary waters ads with loons. I finally got to the escalator that brings you down to baggage claim, and waiting at the bottom I saw my two best friends in the world. And immediately broke out in loud, attention-grabbing sobs. Anyone who knows me at all knows I'm a cryer, and so this is not hard to believe. But here's the thing- I've been thinking about this trip a bunch over the past few days, and wondering how I'd react if I took this trip again.

A lot has happened since I took that homecoming trip last Spring. And while I still love my Midwestern friends just as much as I used to, possibly more, I don't think I'd be quite the public spectacle upon seeing them this time around. Another whole year has passed with us separated, and I've found how I can get on with my life. And this past semester saw me having some of the best times of my life with completely different people: people who think endless farms when they think "Minnesota" and others who think Texas is in the Northeast corner of the U.S. No, seriously.

Don't get me wrong- I still love Minnesota more than I can really say. Whenever I listen to Daughtry's "September" my mind creates an internal photo collage. Here's a snippet, BECAUSE IT'S MY BLOG AND I CAN DO THAT.

How the time passed away, all the trouble that we gave, and all those days we spent out by the lake.

Of all the things I still remember, Summer's never looked the same.

In the middle of September we'd still play out in the rain.

Yeah, we knew we had to leave this town, but we never knew when and we never knew how.

See what I did there? "Play" as in music... picture by a lake... sentimenal pictures without getting too close to anyone's face who might not want it here. I'm so good.

Also, I realize this is incredibly tacky and sappy. But if you haven't discovered by now that's kind of my thing, you haven't been paying attention.