 |
| Driving across the Mississippi Bridge |
“When are you moving back to Louisiana?”
Every time I come down to Louisiana to visit my family I can count on hearing this question. This time my aunt posed the query. Sometimes it’s an uncle or a cousin. I know my parents would jump for joy if we moved to Louisiana for a while. Or even better, for good. Both my parents and my mother-in-law have stopped asking, but I know they hold out hope.
My friend and I were discussing our respective high school reunions this weekend. We attended the same high school but she graduated a few years ahead of me. That’s when it hit me how far removed I am from this little Louisiana town I grew up in. Not just geographically since we now live in Maryland, but emotionally.
Besides my family and some friends, there’s very little to draw me to this state full of delicious foods, southern drawls and fields of sugar cane. It hit me on the car ride back to my parents’ home after a raucous and hilarious dinner with my extended family. (Yes, Asian families are loud.)
I’m looking at those sugar cane fields and our beloved Mississippi Bridge with a different eye. An outsider’s eye. I tried to capture those scenes from the passenger seat of my mother’s car partly as a way to remember where I grew up. Also because those beautiful fields of sugar cane might be a new housing development or strip mall the next time I return.
It’s cliche to say that “Home is where the heart is,” and I’m not sure it applies for me. The DC metro area fits me better. For some reason living there makes it easier to believe that I can accomplish whatever my dreams tell me and likewise for my children.
Perhaps it’s my more mature perspective or maybe it’s the confidence in my ability that makes the DC metro area feel more open to possibilities as compared to Louisiana.