The Dogwood Festival a few weeks ago was bittersweet. I loved being in Knoxville, that place feels more like home than any other place. I loved being with some of my closest friends and spending the whole time we we're there with them, I miss them terribly. It was so nice to ride bikes around Knoxville and reminisce and remember Knoxville, the place I learned how to be me. Knoxville is where our moods suddenly change, we feel home, you get that feeling like a little girl does when her daddy is pulling in the drive-way from work, where she's so excited and runs out to give him a big hug before he can get the car door shut. Thats how I felt when I was driving over Jelico Mountain and I began to sense the feeling that someone was coming home and I was excited. So I waited by the door to see the car pull in the drive-way. And when I got to Henley Street exit, I felt home.

But yet I knew I had to get back to Anderson, which doesn't sound that enticing and that exciting. But last night I had a conversation that I had been needing. After our Sunday night youth service, I stayed and talked to a few students that wanted more, they wanted to read more, study more, but they weren't just saying that, they genuinely wanted to make it happen. Which was encouraging and beautiful.

So here's to you Knoxville, Tennessee. Don't go anywhere and don't change too much, for when we make it back down there, either for a visit or maybe for good,either way we'll be coming home.