Trips & Returning Home .

This weekend I was in Raleigh, NC with my studio section to visit a few museums up close and personal; we are doing a semester-long museum design project. Upon returning this evening, I took the rental van back to the on-campus Enterprise and walked back to my car in the cold, scarf wrapped tight, gloves on.

I realized two things on this walk; the first is that I really do love the cold: the way it bites and nips at you, the drastic change of from the frigid outside to when you get outside, the ability to see your breath in the air, the burning in your lungs when you take a deep breath. The other thing is that there is something great about trips and vacations (no matter how small) but there is something equally amazing about returning home.

Even more so, I realized that Clemson really can truly be called a home. It's one thing to routinely return to a place out of habit. But it's another entirely to not just go back there, but feel like you have returned. To a place of familiar surroundings, familiar people, and lots of memories. While I'm looking forward to the next step in life, there will always be a part of me in Clemson.