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Semi-native
Contributed by: Jared Keller on 5/10/2007

"Home" is a funny thing, really. It tends to mean starkly different things to different people.

While The Wife is a bona fide, genuine Denver native, I can't say the same for myself. Nope, I'm a poser. My family moved to the Denver area in June of 1978, when I was three years old. I was born in Albuquerque, but, as I was so young when we moved here, don't share the sentiment that my older brothers and sisters have about the place. My folks are originally from Southern Ohio, and, though I've never lived there, I've been back to visit on any number of occasions.

Still, even with those other (sometimes longstanding) family ties to different areas of the country, Colorado has been, and continues to be home. My childhood, my friends, my lovely bride, and now, my little girl (another Colorado native!) all serve to anchor me firmly to the clay of the plains, and the granite of the Rockies.

Experiences, emotions, and still-palpable sensations mingle with the landscape of both my youth and adulthood, and I find myself unwilling to sever the resultant ties. The smell of the chlorine and the grit of the concrete ramps at Celebrity's waterslides, the sound of the Fourth of July fireworks booming across a packed Mile High Stadium after a Denver Bears game, stopping by Crystal's Pizzeria, or Bob & Tony's in Estes Park; these are the distant, but still vibrant memories that ground me. When I toss in the ecclectic mix of the old and new that our state has become, and I see my little girl drinking in experiences of her own, I'm further intrigued, and ever more determined to ride this thing out - right where we are.

Both the good and the bad have been rooted to Denver, and the sum of those tallies makes up my life. "Home" isn't just a street address. It's comfort zone, and a place to hammer some stakes into the ground, and declare one's permanence.

Home is where I was when I learned that my ailing grandmother - Gammy - had just passed away in her bedroom, shortly after I'd said had a chance to say my goodbyes. Home is where I was when I got the call from our adoption agency that my little girl's birthmother was in labor. The heart soars, and the heart sinks, but when one looks back, it's always home that provides the context. Home is whereone's memories take up residence, and they do have an address just as surely as they have a date and time.

For many of you out there, Denver is just the most recent stop on a circuit of corporate relocations. It's another box to check, or another rung on the ladder. For some of us, though, this is our homestead; our frontier.

This is home.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jared Keller

Littleton

Jared Keller has posted 465 stories and 64 comments since joining on 12/1/2005. Jared Keller 's average story rating is 4.86.
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