SEPTEMBER 2023
I grew up in Burlington, North Carolina. After living in Greensboro, Winston Salem, Durham, and Chapel Hill, I left North Carolina in March 1995 at 33 1/2. Eight states, 28 years, and six months later, my journey brought me back to the coast of North Carolina, to Wilmington, which was just 17 miles north of the 33rd Parallel. I hit the ground running. It only took me a few days to find my bearings.
Wilmington had changed dramatically since my last visit in 2015, but I could get around without issues. I spent the first ten days cleaning, reorganizing, searching for used furniture, hanging window treatments, and filling the walls with items I had collected on my adventure. I felt very much at home in no time flat.
On the eleventh day, my niece and I took a road trip to Tabor City, North Carolina, to visit the place where my parents grew up. We visited cousins we had not seen in a very long time and the gravesites of relatives who had passed away over the years. I made sure to drive down Ken Ray Drive, which was named after my birth father?
After spending much time here, we headed to Little River, South Carolina, to visit my oldest brother. Then, we circled towards Wilmington to visit my niece’s father, my second oldest brother. We left at ten that morning and didn’t get back home until 11:15 that night. All in all, we had a great day.
During this trip, I learned more about past events and confirmed that I had made the right decision to leave North Carolina in 1995.
But that was then, and this is now. Things had changed. I had changed. My enemies no longer threatened me. I no longer had to live out those dark memories of the past. It was time to let the past go once and for all and create a new life for myself in the state where I was conceived, born, and raised.
Aside from having to reacclimate to the humidity and starting completely over at 62, it felt great to be back.