Will D.C. become my home?

With fewer than five months left (137 days), I’m going to change direction on this blog—because I want to use it to answer a vital question, one that I have been answering with “I don’t know” for several weeks now.

Will I stay in D.C. after this is all over?

For the time being, I will ignore the finding-employment aspect of my decision and simply try to figure out if, as a city, D.C. is a good fit for me. Would I be happy here? Even though I have lived here for more than eight months, I’m still not sure.

When people from back home ask me how I like D.C. I say, “Well, I’ve heard good things about it. But I wouldn’t know.” And that is an honest answer—I live in a Maryland suburb invested with deer. I work in a Virginia suburb. I spend the rest of my waking hours in a classroom or staring at a computer screen. As a journalism student, I do reporting in D.C., but pointing a flip cam at strangers hasn’t taught me much about the quality of life here. In short, I do not feel as if I have ever lived in our nation’s capitol.

Once I finish school, I could suddenly find myself with the option of moving anywhere, an option I may never have again. I could return to one of the cities I’ve already lived in. I could try my luck somewhere new. Or I could stay here. As the clock ticks down, I will attempt to determine not if I should stay here—but if I want to.

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