30 Days Until 30 - Day 3

I'm counting down the days until I hit 30. Follow along with me while I celebrate the people, places, & things that have helped shape who I am today.

Location, location, location...

People in many, many places around the world get struck with the "winter blues" even as soon as autumn hits. The days get shorter, the temperature drops. But where I come from, this is the time of year we find sweet relief.

Phoenix, Arizona - where we are 99 in the shade for a good chunk of the year. We get an abundance of sunshine, but some wicked cool storms during our summer months. Lots of people don't have a very high opinion of Arizona residents, but we are survivors. We don't get days of from work or school because they can't shovel the sunshine from our streets.

Arizona's people are as eclectic as our landscape. Drive awhile & the cacti turn to pine trees. My father was a San Diego native & my mom is from upstate New York (way upstate, she's practically Canadian). Had they met anywhere else I wouldn't have known the enigma that is AZ from the inside. While I'll never know how much a change of scenery would have changed me as a person, I am sure no state in the USA prepares you with thicker skin than the copper state.

I am now raising children of my own here and while we dream of many other locations around the globe we'd love to visit, I'm not quite sure anywhere else would feel like home.