Happy like Portland

Once upon a time I fell in love with a boy in Portland, Oregon. And in Portland, that boy and I fell in love with the city itself. We loved how the city was surrounded by greenery and urban parks. We liked the atmosphere. We didn't fall in love with the people because honestly, Portland, your people are some of the craziest in the world. I mean, what else could have inspired Portlandia and made it such a huge hit? But we loved it any way. We stayed about a month in total over one summer getting caught up in each other and the city that surrounded us.

We were, like 20 and 21 at the time. We were idealistic and had all these crazy plans for the future. Like getting married and settling down in the area (maybe not the city itself but a suburb like Troutdale or Hillsboro). And then life happened and the real world happened and everything started to feel like work.

And things felt like that for a while and the only thing that boy and I had, together and separate was that month we stayed in Portland. And I've gotta say when things got rough, it was the only thing that kept me around. Portland was five years ago.

Something from fives years ago was strong enough to keep me around when stuff hit the fan and kept getting worse. And honestly I haven't been as happy as I was five years ago until now. And I am so blissfully happy.

Sometimes the most bizarre things keep us around but they are important for a reason and when we find that reason again it all kind of makes sense.