So, where are you from? It’s a question that’s meant to be simple. However, like most small talk questions, it would need a longer answer if you asked honestly.

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The short answer: I’m from Lawrenceville, Georgia. 

 

The slightly longer one: We started out in Lawrenceville, then moved to Barrow County, and then back to Lawrenceville again. But Norocoss and Dacula are where I went to school and what most of my childhood consisted of.  

 

The honest (best) answer: I was born and raised in Georgia, but my family is from Michigan. And it will always be home. Home is tight hugs from my grandmothers and sitting out on their porches. Home is catching fireflies in a jar and walking up in down my grandma’s pebbled driveway. Home is a collection of every senior picture and graduation picture of all 10 grandchildren, covering the majority of a green, carpeted floor. Home is passing by run-down houses and stores and Dad saying, “It didn’t use to be like this" or “This wasn’t the Flint I grew up in.” Home means every single one of us piled into my Aunt's house, shrieking and laughing, and my Mom’s tacos on the stove. Home is pulling up to  BB’s house right off the highway exit. 

 

When home hits at the wrong time, you’ll look around and realize everyone you’d like to see right now is thousands of miles up north and you’re the only one down here. Your existence seems rooted on an island, watching everyone on the mainland. 

 

Here’s the recipe to beat that feeling of homesickness. A combination of flavors (for me at least) that embodies the slogan “Pure Michigan.”