My parents have lived in the city since the late '90s. It's their home. It has never quite felt like my home. I grew up in the Maryland suburbs. It really isn't so far and yet I haven't actually traveled out that way so much over the years. But one day last week, I went all in: 25,000 steps for the day. I walked around my old high school, my childhood home and beyond.
It occurred to me that part of the intimacy I feel for the places of my youth is a direct result of having spent so many years exploring it on foot. My body knows exactly how steep a particular hill is, for instance. The muscle memory is set firmly in my quads. While I had driven through our old neighborhood a few times over the years, this was my first time in ages engaging with it as a pedestrian. It felt right.
The biggest change is the newly constructed Metro line that goes right under my old street:
I did plenty of wandering in northwest DC on other days, taking in the National Cathedral,
Malcolm X Park (also know as Meridian Hill Park depending whom you ask), where I saw two different people blasting gospel music
and the unique atmosphere of Adams Morgan, well encapsulated by this store front:
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