Today’s post needs no real introduction. There are places we all feel are “home” even if they’re not physically our homes. They invoke emotion in us that can’t usually be put into words, but today we’re going to try.

Home. They say it’s where the heart is.

Some say it’s where your family is.

Sometimes it’s just where your heart starts beating faster, your skin flushes, memories of a time come flooding back, and you find yourself saying out loud, “This is home!”

That’s Auburn for me.

I picked up my roommate from Auburn at the airport and we drove down for a road race this weekend. Both of us upon reaching the city limits, said that THIS is home.

The sights, the smells, the memories… even though it’s been 15 years since we left here to move on with lives, get married, have babies, etc, it’s like we never left. Sure, “home” has gotten new stores, A FREAKING TARGET, a lot more bars, and a lot of facelifts, but it’s the same.

We’re those people now, the ones like our parents used to be when they would drag us to Auburn. The ones who say, “I used to live there. We used to go there on Wednesday nights. That used to be the xyz store.”

We’re like that now because it’s home. It always will be.