Atlanta was the city that I wanted to live in when I grew up. I used to look out my bay window as a child in Marietta, and watch the lights from the hill grow as the years grew by… and that glow was from the city of Atlanta expanding towards us. Decades later, now living in the largest glowing city of America, I found myself flying back to the quiet darkness my eyes so desperately craved.
It had been a decade since I had seen Marietta or Atlanta. So much had changed when I arrived. The transit trains that I had rode as a senior in high school now became foreign to me. I walked out of the North Avenue MARTA station and I became so disoriented.. .. because nothing registered as being familiar. It was like I was visiting the city for the very first time.
But nostalgia, that sleepy beast of an emotion, woke up from its hibernation, and things began to connect themselves like little puzzle pieces, slowly dancing with each other to connect and become one. The Varsity, Piedmont Park, Ansley, 10th and 14th ave, Little 5 Points, Cabbage Town, East Village… Mary’s…. All these things began to come together to spell out the words in my head “Atlanta. I miss You”
