Yesterday, I wrote about my 19 favorite things about Atlanta, so I think it’s pretty clear that I love the city; but, today I wanted to write a little bit more about falling in love with Atlanta.
In September 2015, Ryan joined Praxis, and his business partner was in Atlanta, GA. So, we picked up our lives and moved to the Southern US. Ryan had to start his job a month before our lease was up in Canada, so he headed down a month earlier than I did. As he found an apartment and got settled into life in Georgia, I packed up the rest of our life back home, finished up work at lululemon, and embarked on a 5 day road trip to get down to Georgia.
After 5 days of solo travel, I was super stoked to see the Georgia state sign and know that I was almost “home”. Arriving at the apartment that Ryan had found felt strange. We had almost no furniture, cutlery or groceries, and it hardly felt like I was “home”.
I arrived on a weekend, so I had a couple of days to spend with Ryan getting acquainted with my new city before he had to go to work. That first Monday was horrible though. It was my first Monday working remotely, and I was all by myself in a big, scary city where I knew NO BODY, except Ryan. I felt totally lost and out of my element, so I sat down and made a list of all the things I could do to make myself feel more at home.
I made our apartment feel like home by setting up more furniture and putting up pictures around our apartment. I found a local yoga studio that I could walk to and I started practicing yoga everyday. I began working at different coffee shops around the city to get to know the city better. I went to meet ups and run clubs to meet people. I started hiking at least once a week. I began taking daily walks around our neighborhood, getting more and more comfortable with it by the day. Still, it took me months to feel at home in Atlanta.
But, I slowly found my place.
I made friends at a couple of different yoga studios and began teaching. I made a friend at a lululemon run club. I hired a business coach who I met with once a week at different coffee shops around town. I explored different restaurants and hikes, and met more and more people who had similar interests as myself.
Slowly, but surely, I fell in love with Atlanta.
I remember standing in Centennial Olympic Park at night in February with friends from Canada, and as I was looking at the view of the city, I felt that feeling that you get when you’ve fallen head over heels for a person, place, or thing. Since we had only ever planned to spend nine months in Atlanta, I never put pressure on myself to like the city, and somehow it had crept it’s way into my heart.
Four months later, Ryan finished up his job with FEE and we began making our way back to Canada. I was super sad to leave the community that I had made and the city that had felt so much like home to me after feeling so strange and unfamiliar less than a year before.
Over a year went by before I visited Atlanta again, and I was kind of nervous to go back.
What if it’s not like I remember it? What if I don’t like it as much as I used to? What if my friends don’t want to hang out with me and it doesn’t feel like home anymore?
As we stepped out of the airport and hopped in an Uber, I couldn’t help but smile. It felt exactly the same as when I had left it over a year before. It felt like home.
We spent a number of weeks back in Atlanta this past summer, eating at our favorite restaurants, drinking all the Arden’s Garden, and reconnecting with friends we hadn’t seen in ages. I was shocked by normal it felt for me to be there.
People often ask me if we’ll ever settle down; if we’ll ever stop traveling; if there’s a place we would and could ever call home. Atlanta is easily a place I could live and call home.
As we left Atlanta to make our way to Mexico City it struck me how sad I was to know that I’m in love with a city that I will probably never be able to call home because of citizenship. I guess that’s what happens in life though, we often want the things we can’t have. For now, I will continue to love Atlanta when I visit for a few weeks each year.