When You Fall In Love With A City
It will become a home even if it is thousands of miles away from your roots. In that moment, you will feel so settled and comfortable, that no matter how long removed you are from this place, you will always be able to return.
By Sarah Denise
Falling in love with a place is so much different and more complex than falling in love with a human being.
Everything about the city excites you at first, as you explore it and learn the hot spots, the side to avoid, the best places to eat and socialize. You question everything about the city just as you would question a new beau on a first date, learning every nook and cranny of its existence and being.
A city cannot speak, so you must learn it more slowly and methodically. The beauty of this is in the unending truths. Your own eyes get to reveal and revel in all of the secrets, good and bad, of your newest adoration. In a city in which you don’t speak the native language, another added difficulty only adds to the romance of the relationship as you learn words by association and context.
You will memorize the streets, the store fronts, the barista at your favorite coffee shop. The turns you missed a dozen times you’ll take without a second thought while retelling a story and laughing with new friends. You’ll become a tour guide when family and friends come to visit and meet your new city, and you’ll proudly show it off.
There will be the bad times you. Something will happen to make you question your love, whether it be heartbreak, a bad night out, or a failed excursion. At some point, as with everything, your city will disappoint you. But in that moment, real love will prevail when all else will falter.
The puppy love will fade and you’ll be left with all or nothing. If it’s nothing, the disappointment may drive you to looking for a new landing spot, a new place to start over. But if it’s all, then you’ll come to appreciate and love this new home even more.
It will become a home even if it is thousands of miles away from your roots.
In that moment, you will feel so settled and comfortable, that no matter how long removed you are from this place, you will always be able to return. Distance makes the heart long for lost loves and grow fonder, and returning will be the sweetest part. 
