Farthest From Home

Today is the first day I have lived in Leeds more days than I have lived in my home town.

As with most statistics, this milestone is arbitrary; but it seemed appropriate to mark this with a little post.

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It is perhaps unfair to divide my life so far into two halves; after all a lot of the time spent in my home town wasn't necessarily at my discretion, and almost all of it represented my growth to becoming what is legally recognised as an adult.

And whilst my physical growth was almost all contained in those formative years; my actual growth into the human that types these words here today - was only truly began in earnest once I arrived in Leeds. Although some key formative moments took place in those bewildering teenage years just before.

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Since coming to Leeds, and indeed where I find myself today; I am now someone who has been able to identify some fundamental ideas behind how I form relationships with other humans - both romantically, and in every other guise known so far.

As depressing as this phrase resounds in hollow company - I have become a home owner.

I navigated the worlds of university, into gainful - if mundane - employment.

There was a small altercation with a truck abroad; but honestly, that doesn't really figure in my mind these days.

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I think my thirties have been ultimately more transformative than my twenties.

Whilst I made several important friendships in my twenties (many of which happily continue in some guise to this date); my most important relationships definitively developed in these last 6 or so years.

And certainly since 2015 my political leanings have taken a battering - thanks to the philosophical groundwork laid out 5 years earlier.

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I'm not inclined at this point to reminisce about key events in my life here in Leeds, at this point. 

Oh no doubt that will come; and when it seems more appropriate [given the tense nature of 'normal' life at the moment].

But for now I wanted to at least make it known that today is the farthest I have ever been from home - and yet, the reality I am continuing to build up around myself - and (in particular) the group of people that I have been lucky enough to be able to welcome into this reality as well; the closer to home I feel.