My Love Letter to Charlotte
I’ve tried to write this blog post a million times, but I feel like I can never get it quite right.
It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I won’t be in Charlotte this time next week. I won’t be able to see the skyline as I drove home from work. I won’t be able to look up at the sky and see the most giant, most puffy clouds. I won’t be offered sweet tea at every restaurant I go to.
It’s just so strange to me that this summer is basically over. This time next week I’ll be in class, back at Indiana University. It won’t even feel like I ever lived in North Carolina, and I’m sad about it.
I’ve done a really bad job documenting my time here, but oh my god it has been the best summer of my life. Looking back on my journey to get here, I truly was unprepared and way less stressed about the move than I should have been.
I remember my sister Carmen asking me if I was scared or nervous to move to Charlotte, a place I had literally never been, and move to a place where I knew absolutely no one. I remember answering that I had zero worries about it. Scared wasn’t even a feeling I had thought about. I was just plain excited.
Moving to a new city by yourself in theory seems like an introverts nightmare, but it was my DREAM. I loved that no one knew me. Living in a new city like this is basically every writer’s dream. I felt like I was in my very own indie movie, and I embraced it. I felt mysterious, and I liked that LMAO.
I spent most of my time this summer writing poetry, people watching at random cafes, and driving around looking at pretty houses.
Living in Charlotte has given me a lot to think about in terms of what I want in my life as I grow older and graduate college. If you ask any of my friends, I always told them that once I graduated college, I wanted to be living in my hometown of Chicago.
But now, I think about all the aspects of a city like Charlotte that I won’t be able to get back home. I want the softness that Charlotte brings to a city. I want the nature that literally surrounds you at every corner. I want it so bad that I won’t even care if I get mosquito bites. I want the clouds that get so hot they burst during the day and pour rain all around you like a scene from a movie.
Charlotte, North Carolina has felt like a really weird fever dream. The closest thing I can describe it to is the feeling of crashing head first into the waves and letting the water hold you there, but like in the best way possible.
I know if I ever move back here, it won’t feel this way again. I won’t be a fresh 20 year old with basically no money, not caring that her schedule wasn’t filled with friend dates and real dates. I’m okay with growing up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hold onto this feeling for just a little bit longer.
This isn’t a really good blog post in my opinion because I don’t think it makes a lot of sense, but that’s exactly how this summer has felt. Anyway. Charlotte will always have a place in my heart and I think I’ll always call it a home away from home. Just please don’t turn red during the next presidential election.