Ask Me One More Time Why I Moved to New England From Los Angeles

The first winter my mother came to visit me in Boston, I was in the middle of a college choir rehearsal. She walked in, scanned the room from soprano to bass and couldn't recognize her own child...who was waving at her. No, I was not disfigured by the "Freshmen Fifteen", recently tattooed nor altered by some drastic hairstyle change. Instead, ladies and gentlemen, I was pale. 
Perhaps the sole unforgivable sin a Los Angelina can commit, there I stood amongst many an Irish individual while my own mother started for the door unsure whether her ethnic kid was present.

So yes, I miss the damn sun that warms and tans instead of just brightens things. And yes, there were certain parts of my town [particularly my high school] where you couldn't trip without falling on someone who had recently starred in a movie, written a movie, held a dolly grip for a movie, or [most likely] just came from auditioning for a movie. But is it so hard to believe that experiencing life away from home is how someone discovers who she is and what she cares about? No, the answer is no...that was rhetorical.

While the rich city history and sports fanaticism intrigued me, the people have kept me consoled, loved, intellectually stimulated and aching from laughter. Even the most experienced nomad will tell you that you do not stay in one place to avoid your past, you stay because you have identified your future. I cannot say that I knew I would be a New Englander for the next seven years from the moment I stepped off the plane. But between educating myself and falling in love a few times I recognized that no matter how loyal I am to my birth place, there is nothing like the allegiance to the town that granted you your first taste of independence, accepts you and allows you to mold your own experience.

I may have the occasional pang for Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, The Grove, the 3rd Street Promenade and Jamba Juice. And even though I will request this song anytime I am anywhere with a music playing machine, I have become the woman I am as a resident of Massachusetts. I am a little paler...a little wiser...but mostly I am #BOSTONSTRONG


~carter