It’s a special thing to fall in love with a place. You revel in its beauties. You recognize its flaws. You’ve learned so much about it, but you want to learn more every day. A part of your heart aches when you have been away from it for too long. It’s as much a relationship as any. There are beautiful memories and difficult memories, wonderful moments and ugly moments, but at the end of the day you wouldn’t want any place else to call your own.
Our hometowns are the first places we ever fall in love with, and they say you never truly forget your first love. It's the first part of this wide world that we ever explore, where we take our first steps and eventually learn how to run, run after all of the things that we hope and wish to get out of this life.
Our hometowns represent a big part of who we are. They represent where we have come from, who we used to be, how we got to where we are today. They represent how we have changed, how we have grown, how we have developed our passions and our dreams and our inspirations. They are an important part of the story of us and everything that we stand for.
Though we may move away to college or take a job across the country or go travel the world, a piece of our homes will always be with us. Wherever our feet may take us, there will always be somewhere that we will never forget, somewhere that is unlike any other place we may go, somewhere that will always welcome us back with open arms no matter how long we have been away.
So I would like to say thank you to that place that will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you for all of the sunsets and sunrises I have watched from your beaches, showing me what true beauty is. Thank you for letting me get to know you, all of your cobblestone streets and sprawling oak trees. Thank you for the history of your buildings and streets and churches that have inspired me to learn. Thank you for your atmosphere of hospitality and love and class that has shown me how to treat others. Thank you for your strength during hard times that has given me the courage to do the same. Thank you for being brave in the face of hate and hurt and for holding your head high, always.
You are unwavering in your character and I am proud to call you my home, Charleston, SC.
No matter where you may come from, if you have lived in the same place your entire life or if you have moved across the country several times, be thankful to those places you have called home because they have been integral in shaping who you are.
