Brian's family threw us a good-bye party today - it was an all afternoon into evening affair, complete with tents, finger foods, pool shenanigans, beer, and tears. Considerable tears.

There were tears last night, too, after Brian and I left a party that his work friends threw for him. It's been strange to only hear about his friends from a distance because I feel like he's underestimated how much they care about him, or how much he cares about them as well. As we were saying goodbye, his friends one by one offered him words of wisdom for the trip, wished him luck, etc - and as I watched him walk to the car from the house I realized that he was leaving a place of much warmth and comfort to him.

I guess I haven't really thought much about the magnitude that leaving home has for some people. When I left home to go to college at 17 I was somewhat emotionally stunted and although I do love my family, it's never been an outward sort of love. I don't have extended family close to me, nor a tightly-knit community in my hometown like Brian does. I don't have a tightly-knit community in New York City either - just a smattering of friends here and there.

Overall, though, I think he and I just come from very different environments; since high school I never even thought it was a possibility that I stay in my hometown after graduation, let alone get married and raise a family and spend the rest of my life there. But for him and his community, people do that - not all of them, but they do, and leaving home is a cause for celebration and occasion. I was so incredibly touched at the outpouring of love and generosity from Brian's family and friends today - and honored to be a part of it. It's a kind of feeling that I've never really had - and seeing it now I know that it will certainly be in my future.