Started at the Memorial—
               cold air,
             honest air,
  that makes you zip up
 and still feel exposed.

After—
     the city kept handing me chapters.

Krog Street Market,
     somehow sitting there the whole time
     like Atlanta’s been keeping a secret
     and finally showed me the side door.

Old Fourth Ward on foot—
    brick and edges,
    little pockets of “oh… this exists?”
    and the quiet thrill
    of realizing you’ve been living
    in only one room

    of a big house.

It was too cold for loitering,
   so the streets stayed polite
   until the BeltLine—

   then it turned into a moving river:
        runners with purpose,
        strollers with plans,
        dogs with opinions,

        owners getting dragged by love.

I stopped to meet a couple pups,
  said the kind of hellos
  you only say when you’re not in a hurry,
  and noticed something simple:

I wasn’t visiting anymore.
I was *learning routes*.

Then I crossed town
     for one more familiar corner—

Northside Tavern,
          Chandler behind the bar,
          that whole place humming

          like a reliable chord.

I went in for a hello
  and walked out with a small mercy—
    a spare little calm
      at exactly the moment
         I’d been hunting for one.

(Atlanta has a way of doing that.
 You don’t find what you’re looking for—
 it finds you, through people.)

And somewhere in the middle of all that,
                the thought landed hard:

I’m moving here.

Offer on a condo in Buckhead—
                        real,
                       adult,
                  terrifying,
        the kind of sentence

        you say twice just to make it true.

So today felt consequential
   in the best way—
          not loud,
    not ceremonial,

    just the city easing up beside me
    like it’s making room.

Home doesn’t always arrive with fireworks.

Sometimes it’s a long walk,
        a new neighborhood,
 a bartender who remembers,

 and the first time you realize
 you’re already acting like you belong.

That’s what home feels like.

Now let’s fill the rooms.