I didn't know I was coming home. I didn't know that for the first time in my life I was going to find someplace that felt like home. Not just a place to live, but an actual home. A place where I felt like I belonged. A place where I could put down roots and just be.
I love the seasons. I love that there's a winter. A spring. A summer. A fall. Sometimes we have them all in the same week.
I love how green it is. Having spent 40 years in the high desert, and to be able to look out my window and see trees, with leaves and not pine needles, never ceases to fill me with a sense of wonder.
I love that here, all politics is truly local. Your vote for city council matters. Your vote on local bonds matters. Here it matters as much to you who sits in the Governor's office as it does who your Senator is.
But most of all, I love the people of New Hampshire. They are called cold. They are called aloof. They are called taciturn. No-nonsense to the point of being rude...
And yet, when you need them, they are there. No questions asked. No resentment. No judgement. Just help until the work is done.
I remember walking into a Walmart when I first got here, and the woman in front of me took off her parka and tossed it in her cart. She had a full sized Kimber 1911 in a shoulder holster, and having just arrived from California the thought flashed through my head that I was about to witness a mass shooting. There wasn't. But it made me realize just how broken I was.
A few years later, a local weather alert was pushed to my phone. Flooding if I remember right. It had all the typical sections, "county has issued a flash flood warning for...until...hazard...source...impact..." and then in the preparedness section it started with "Don't be stupid...if you see flooding avoid the area".
Whoever wrote that should be given a raise. As should whoever writes the DOT’s dynamic message signs, the highway message boards that loom over the interstate with their amber letters and government-approved common sense. I passed one today that said "Happy 250th Birthday America!", "Live Free or Die!", and "Expect heavy holiday traffic, plan a head".
My all time favorite there has to be the one that said "10 miles to exit 3. Estimated travel time 7 minutes." The speed limit along that stretch is 55. Nobody from around here is troubled by that math.