the newly cornwells: Heading Home

When I was 17, a junior in high school, my father's job got transferred to the corporate office in Topeka, Kansas. This meant that we'd have to leave the place we'd lived longest, Colleyville, Texas. I was fortunate enough to have parents who not only supported me but enabled me, and my sisters, to stay in Texas to finish my senior year.

My dad traveled from our home in Colleyville to a temporary apartment in Topeka Monday mornings at 5am and returned back to our house on Glen Dale by 6 on Fridays. It was hard going through the motions senior year knowing that after graduation that while I'd be leaving for college, I'd also not be coming back "home," but I'm sooo grateful I got to finish out my high school years with some of my best friends in a town that I still LOVE.

My parents have since moved twice, and have a second home in Toronto now with a similar situation to the above, but every time I get the chance to go back to Colleyville it's still a homecoming of sorts. I know the roads, the stores, the RESTAURANTS - yum - like the back of my hand, and although some things have changed - hello strip mall across from high school - lots has stayed the same.

This weekend I'm headed to Colleyville, and actually Glen Dale Drive, for my best friend's wedding shower. E moved into the house 5 houses down from mine in sixth grade. We met when I tried to sell her family some wrapping paper for a Choir fundraiser. I think they took pity and ordered a few rolls and quickly accepted me as one of their own.

Over the years the Booths have been my second parents and siblings. E and I would sit on top of our brick mailboxes and yell at each other as the other one walked home. We played kick ball in the cul-de-sac with her four brothers and sisters and my two sisters. We held not so secret parties, went on silly car rides to Sonic and high school football games (it literally is a way of life in TX) and ate LOTS of fajitas.

I still miss Texas and E but she has also moved out with her now-fiance and we both have our own grown up lives that I'm pretty sure neither of us ever imagined during our awkward middle school years. I'm excited to see a few old friends this weekend and enjoy all that Texas has to offer. Here are a few things that remind me of "home"