I remember on our walks together I would often cite the example of Frodo leaving The Shire when the question of how we were spending our time came up. Both of us were away from family most the year, this distance becoming more normalized with each passing month, and I loved this example because of how it cast our way of living in some kind of justified, heroic light.

Back then I was 100% convinced that if one loved their family then they must spend most of their lives away from them in order to work and contribute to that family. I didn't mean this just in a monetary sense but also in a developmental one. Our families love us, but they want to help us pursue some achievement in the world. They wouldn't want us to be bugging them all the time.

I've since reflected on this. I still do believe our families want us to pursue development. But I've been challenging this normalized idea of being away for so long. Soon I might get to choose where to live next. Right now I think I'll end up near family.

Writing this because I just realized it would be foolish to commit

drewbaca_

to a joint writing streak and then just leave him hanging by doing all my writing in my private fiction tribe.