Home for me is Rochester, New York. We moved here when I was 5 and I stayed until I went to university when I was 18. After graduating, I moved back home, got a job, started my Master’s, leased an apartment with a friend, and started my life as a grown up in the very hip Park Ave neighborhood. 

Over the weekend, I took a walk through my old neighborhood with two very good friends. We made our way up to the lookout point of a nearby reservoir and paused for a photo.

It might not look like much, but every buildings has a story. Since I’ve spent years as a tour guide on the Genesee River and Erie Canal that built our city, I am proud to say I know most of those stories. Rochester might not possess the glamor of NYC or excitement of LA (and it doesn’t have a snappy acronym), but it’s beautiful and it’s home.