10,000 feet above the ground, I see the California mountains from my window seat as I’m headed home. My new home as of 3 months ago. I left Chicago, the city that raised me for all 29 years of my life (this is when all the people living downtown cringe and make sure I know “Aurora is not Chicago”). No one who knows me – including myself – could have pictured me leaving the greater Chicago area (happy?), much less for the state of Indiana. “Why don’t you and Bhumi go somewhere nice?” asked Naitik, my younger brother who had just returned home after grad school in Berkeley. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have similar thoughts about the location to where I was about to move to. (more…)