Home is a strange, wonderful place. They say, “you can’t go home again”. But they’re wrong. You can. And I did. 

    It wasn’t easy, in fact, it was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life, but it was also the best. It was ultimately where my heart belonged. 

    When I first graduated college, I found a burst of courage in me from somewhere way down in the depths of parts I didn’t know existed and moved from Upstate New York to San Diego, CA just weeks after graduating. It was a bold move to say the least, & sometimes it frightens me when I think about it to this day, because I don’t know where that young girl found the gumption to pack up & move 3,000 miles away from everything and everyone she loved. 

      I loved CA & my experiences there too. I made some lifelong friends & memories there. But the most amazing thing that happened to me in CA was finding the Cardiology team that was finally able to diagnose & treat my cardiac condition that I had since birth. When I finally left CA, I did so with a pacemaker and a whole new lease on life. I truly believe that sometimes we are put in the places we are meant to be for a reason. 

    Had I not decided to randomly move to CA and get a job working in a hospital, would I have passed out literally at the feet of one of the best heart surgeons in the field of electrophysiology? Maybe, maybe not. But I’m thinking it’s pretty doubtful. So you see there is a plan for all of it. 

    And then it came time to come home. I didn’t realize how much I missed my family or how much I was truly “spinning my wheels in the mud” after my accident, until (sadly) far too long after I moved home. But it was time. It had been time. And it finally took my brother & my Mom to come out there & say, “enough is enough”. The gig is up. Time to go. And it was. There is a phrase my friend Nikki told me in college once, “if you don’t leave a town when you’re supposed to, it can find a way to kick you out.” I didn’t want that to happen, so I left. And I discovered something magical in doing so. 

    Sometimes home is not only where the heart is, but it’s where your heart belongs. And that is “just good stuff”.