two weeks home.

I want this.

I thought I'd miss Mt. Vernon more. I barely think about the valley. I think about my friends sometimes, but I'm so caught up in my new role at work, seeing old friends, and thinking about how different it is to be home. How much it really feels like home. I've had a couple of people ask me why I came back. I respond with the same thing, "I never wanted to leave." I get to do a lot of explaining about who I am, where I've been, what I'm about to all of the new people I meet at work. Sometimes it's hard to answer. I am getting incredibly tired of people asking me where I went to school. I almost feel like I'm less of a person in the eyes of others without a degree. I am, apparently, very fortunate to be at my level without a degree.

One thing I am not sick of is the opportunity I have to learn and grow in my store. Target rarely ever shuts down stores. I get to help close Jantzen Beach. I get to help with merchandise transfers, merchandising a store that is trying to close down, yet still maintain all of our normal standards. We are 59 days out from our store closing. After the store closes, I get to go be support help in another store for two months. Then I get the amazing opportunity to open a brand new store. I get to help with planorama, stocking, training a new team, and all that comes with all new equipment, fixtures, etc. I got to go to Hawaii to help with the first Target opened on the islands. That was so amazing, that I really can't wait to get to do it again here in Portland. I'm hoping that I can play my cards just right and get to help open the Portland City Target...but who knows where I will be in a year.

Aside from work, it's been nice to be home. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by memories that flash back when I am driving around town. I have done so much in this town. It feels like I have lived the lives of four different people, not just one. I run into people who I haven't seen in years. People keep telling me how much I've changed. I can't help but wonder how batshit crazy I seemed in the past. How people perceived me versus how I saw myself. I guess no one can ever say I'm not memorable. I'm learning a lot about that as well. That's a post for a different day.