Sometimes it's the journey

“Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” – Drake
 
I grew up in a very small town.  A one-stoplight kind of small town.  One short ride on my bike and I’d be at the center of things, stopping at the pharmacy for candy or the library for books or the sandwich shop where everybody knew my name and had watched me come and go through the years.  Looking back, it was a wonderful and nurturing place to grow up – even with the normal perils of childhood, there were so many positives about life during those times that, sadly, through the years have changed and now are only memories.  Good memories.  Cherished ones.
 
That being said, when I hit my teens all I could think about was getting out.  By the time I graduated high school, the small town had become my prison, merely a place from which to launch into a “real world” that surely had more to offer than the local pharmacy, library or sandwich shop.  I couldn’t wait to escape, to move on, to spread my wings and fly away from the tiny village where I was trapped like a caterpillar inside a beautiful glass box, anxiously awaiting my turn to become a butterfly, spread my wings and fly away from my captivity.
 
And so I eventually did.  I flew and flew and flew and flew.  And flew.  All told, in terms of miles and energy spent, I probably flew around the world and back many times.  And yes, I found the things I was looking for – well, many of them anyway – and so far the journey has yielded knowledge, understanding and perhaps even a little wisdom, at least the kind of wisdom that comes from age and experiences lived.
 
Now, after all that flying, I’ve landed.  And much to my own surprise, I’ve come to rest right back in a small town, a one-stoplight kind of small town, where the people at the pharmacy, the library and the sandwich shop all are learning my name – though now it’s Wegmans, the local wine store, and our favorite pizza joint on Market Street. 
 
Truth be told, and again much to my surprise, I’ve found myself content to be here, away from the massive urban sprawls of China, even comfortably away from my adult-hometown of NYC.  The air here is fresh and sparkling, the pace is slow, the people are friendly, and clean food and water are the norm and not something to be sought after on a daily basis.
 
My friend Nancy, when visiting her hometown in upstate NY, once said, “You have to make time for all the niceties.”  Indeed you do.  And, as we both agreed, what a wonderful problem to have.  To be sure, being a big-city girl, entrenched in the urban canyons since college, it’s been an attitude adjustment - a good one, perhaps long overdue, and now, thankfully, I find that I’m thriving on the positive human interaction and enjoying the daily “niceties.”  In fact, I want to believe, and certainly hope, there are many similar places where people are making time for the same – after all, as Nancy and I have found, a little more “nice” in the world doesn’t hurt.

I still have a lot to learn and sincerely hope the journey is far from over; however, for the moment, and while perhaps a bit ironic, I’ve found contentment upon landing in a small town very similar to the one in which I grew up, and it would appear that my long and circuitous journey has indeed served to teach me a lot about appreciating my current destination.