Twinge of the Heart

I felt an unexpected gush of homesickness today (in the library, of all places).

Every Tuesday and Thursday I spend a few hours in the library in between my classes to do some lesson planning. On this particular Tuesday, I walked in to my usual quiet room to my usual well-sized table and noticed a Spanish USA travel guide book on my way up the stairs. Impulsively, I reached for it and began to flip through the pages. Instinctively, I flipped right to Wisconsin.

The first sentence of the introduction to the great Midwestern state read, "Wisconsin is very well-known for its cheese." I smiled, amused and glad that they got that right.

Almost immediately my eyes were drawn to the section about a city called "Madison." And as I began to read about my favorite city in our great United States, something unexpected happened. My heart dropped. My eyes teared up. And I felt the sharp twinge of homesickness.

When I got to the part about how it is located on a special land form called an "isthmus" and how it is tucked between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, I almost lost it. And before I could read anymore about our "majestic" state capitol building or the great University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had to put the book down.

I stared at the cover for a minute, trying to pull myself together. A library is no place to break down into tears, after all. And what would the old Spanish man sitting next to me think? So I forced myself to push thoughts of Spring in Madison out of my head, with its bright tulips, classic Terrace, and happy students coming out of hibernation. I decided instead to think fondly of my familiar home, and remind myself that it still exists in my heart and therefore is not too far away.