As I wander around the shopping center in my hometown, I am struck by the bustle of the streets in the city. People hastily going home from work, trying to catch a train or a bus. People casually walking from store to store, stopping to talk to friends.

With the holiday season in full swing, I see smiles and laughs. I see people in the stores with laughter in their eyes as they see the perfect present for a loved one. I step into the bookstore in the plaza, one of my favorite places since I have been a child. I run my eyes and fingers over the spines of the books, taking in the beauty and touch of the covers. A smell of coffee is in the air with a hint of peppermint, wafting through the air from the attached coffeeshop. I buy a book I have been eyeing for awhile and a sweet hot chocolate and head home. I pass by my elementary school that I spent nearly ten years in and the adjacent playground called the Tot Lot. I recall laughter, end-of-term traditions of swinging as high as we could on the new swings, and gossiping with friends. I see the exterminator's building with the giant metal bug on top and the old pet shop down the street. I smile sadly at the corner store, closed forever after fond memories of heading there after school during spring for ice-cold slushies and the owner’s kind words and smiles. I cross the street, glancing down the street where a few of my friends happened to live, and continue on. I travel passed houses of neighbors and acquaintances. I turn next to the laundromat and the Subway and suddenly I'm home. I open the door and shake off the cold and the melancholy of the memories. The cold leaves but the melancholy remains.