twice this past weekend, i drove from north atlanta back home into the city. both times it was at night.

i love atlanta at night. there's this bend on 85 south right after peachtree street. you round the bend and there is all of downtown illuminated before you. i have such love for this city.

there are landmarks that dot the landscape that have made up such a part of who i am today. i feel as if atlanta, through its buildings, has chronicled my so much of my life.

there's our church, and my office building, both of which i pass thinking about where i've come, and where i am going. there's the varsity, which my dad always made a point of stopping at so we could all get an FO all those summers we came through. there's Georgia State where i pounded the streets hating the lack of greenspace for a downtown campus. there's the restaurant where i met so many interesting individuals, all of which opened my eyes to a greater world, one i had been too innocent to experience before. symphony hall, where commissioning is held every year, always makes me nostalgic of a time when i came to atlanta unaware of what the future would bring; skipping out on the meetings to have dinner with my friends or peruse the shops in colony square. the so so def records billboard, the training college, grady hospital...

our first apartment, our first house, our neighbors...

i remember a bartender i worked with talking about how she was so ready to get out of this town. it struck me that she was so unhappy here, and maybe it has stayed with me b/c i couldn't understand the pull to leave.

i know a time will come in the future when it will be time to pack everything up and change cities. i even look forward to that time. but i feel as though atlanta will always, in some respect, be home.

"i have run, i have crawled, i have scaled these city walls.."

posted by Kelly @ 10:07:00 AM