Germany and Nebraska

When I was a teenager and times got tough, I would always tell my parents that I wanted to move to Nebraska next to corn fields to escape my problem.  Nebraska or Germany.  I have no connection to either of those places, but they were always my escape locations.  So much so that the phrase, "Mom said we're moving to Germany" still makes me laugh because of how my sisters and I would throw it around. 

We're a family of girls so there was plenty of drama to go around. 

"I totally biffed it in front of my whole gym class!"

"That's okay.  Mom said we're moving to Germany"

OR

"I have no friends"
"I have nothing to wear"
"I really should have studied more for that test"
"I can't believe I wore my shirt backwards the entire day and no one said anything"
"great, the one guy I like doesn't even know I exist"
{Insert your own teenage dramatic phrase here}

RESPONSE?
"That's okay, Mom said we're moving to Germany!" said as though it was a solution worth celebrating.

Ahhhh, those Germans. 

If times really got tough, the joking would disappear and the seriousness would enter in, "I just want to move to the cornfields of Nebraska." I actually remember at least once crying on my bed to my mom asking to move to Nebraska.  I also remember saying this to a Young Women's leader and having her sit me down and tell me just how amazing of a place our little nook of New Jersey was.  This was obviously impactful as I still remember it.  Looking back it was amazing and perfect for me and my family.  But that didn't mean I didn't want to figuratively run away sometimes.

So why Germany and Nebraska?  Absolutely no idea.

It was my escape.  If I could just go there, life wouldn't be so hard.  Obviously I was wrong, problems and struggles happen anywhere and everywhere and to everyone. 

That being said, corn fields and foreign lands were my greener pastures.  The funny thing is that if my parents told me we actually were moving to Nebraska, I think I would have lost it.  We're city folk.  I would have laughed.  Not sure I'd even touched a growing stock of corn before let alone walking through corn fields.  

And now I've entirely come full circle. 

We left the city life of Boston and voluntarily moved to the edge of suburbia - less than a mile from sprawling cornfields.  And it is SO refreshing.  I absolutely love it.  Maybe it's the novelty of it all but I find myself driving around taking pictures because it's so beautiful. 

And here's the proof.  Just from the past month, 4 different days driving where I was struck by the beauty of what I once would have considered "the middle of no where" and what I now call home.