A rough month. Between the holidays and the illness/death of my grandfather, I was back and forth to Indiana three times. Thanks to the incredible flexibility of my team at GBA, I was able to work remotely for a week and avoid a fourth trip! I don't mind the travel so much, but working out the logistics of all these trips was stressful. Before I left the third time, my housemates and I were talking about what we could do with the PULSE group to reconnect and leave for the holidays on a high note. It was then that I realized just how much I had already checked out. Yes, I would be missing things in Pittsburgh while I was away, but I wasn't being present even when I was here.
I am so grateful for the time I was able to spend with both my immediate and extended family in the past several weeks! I kept coming back to the fact that unlike in college when I knew I'd be in Indianapolis by the time May rolled around, I currently can't pin a date on the next time I'll be back. I love the wide open vastness of the future and all its possibilities, but at the same time there are that many more ways I can screw up my priorities. In other words, if I want to see my family, I now have to be the one to make it happen.
Anyway, of the various times I've left Pittsburgh since August, this was the first time that coming back here really felt like coming home.