Since I was 18 I have moved at least once every year. That is 13+ addresses in the last 13 years. I've lived in Boston, South Carolina, Georgia, DC/Virginia, Sacramento, Davis, Oakland, Westwood/LA, and now Jefferson Park/West Adams Los Angeles.
Everywhere I've gone there are 2 things that have kept me grounded and not feeling homesick, although I'm not sure where I would be homesick for anymore. My teddy bear (yes, I'm 31 and I am not ashamed to say that I have a teddy bear!) and NPR are the 2 things that keep me feeling like I'm home everywhere I've been.
I started listening to NPR when my dad started listening to it back in 1988/89. I hated listening to it. It was so boring and the voices were way too soothing. I wanted some music. Eventually, the stories on NPR grew on me and it became routine. I missed the bus in the morning. My dad would drive me to school with the familiar trumpets on the half hour announcing the national news. In the summer, at the end of day camp, my dad would pick me up and the interesting stories on "All things considered" would carry us home.
Now I listen to presidential debates and analyses on the day's happenings and yell at the radio while driving, as if they can hear me through the air waves. Don't you ever yell at your radio? Every boy I've dated has eventually given NPR its own setting on his car.
Today is the first Christmas I'm spending without any family around. Just me, my teddy bear, and NPR.
