Sundays with Stassi: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

I vividly remember that hot summer day, 10 years ago, Aug 2005. My family had a going away gathering for me because I was headed to Illinois for graduate school. At that point I had gone to college about 3.5hrs away from home but I could easily drive home or even realistically make a turn around trip if I needed to make one. However that lurking move to graduate school would be the farthest I had lived from home. I was not looking forward to that 7 hour drive through the Tennessee mountains, but was ready for a new adventure.

I look back now and wonder why that move was such a big deal… I think it was the reality that I wasn’t just going to be gone for 5yrs like the sign said but rather never really come back home because I never really fit there anyway. At the…