Sometimes, on certain days like today, I like to wander around Center City pretending I'm a complete stranger to this place and seeing it for the first time. I take random turns down streets without looking at their signs as if I have no idea where I'm going. I try to look for little details in the surrounding buildings that I've never noticed in order for them to seem new again. New and shiny like that first time I stepped foot in this city when I was 18 in October of 2010. I try and recapture that excitement of the hustle and bustle that was so foreign to a country boy like me.

Usually when I try to do this, I fail at getting myself into the right frame of mind for it to even work, or it only lasts for a minute or so before I snap back into reality. It usually ends up as a disappointment. But today was different. I had been on vacation in Europe the past week and a half, then I got really sick and was bed ridden for 4 days and didn't leave my apartment. I got so engrossed in vacation mode that it was like I forgot everything about everyday life here in the city. So today, the first day since leaving that I actually got out and did things, it all felt so new and interesting and exciting again. I recaptured a small glimmer of that feeling I used to get when I'd come into the city to visit, but didn't live here. I actually had myself convinced for a while that I was a newbie to this place and I spent a good hour just walking around and exploring like it was my first time. I noticed so many details about this place that during "the every day" I never even bothered to notice.

It was so exciting, and a bit depressing when reality finally snapped me back. I don't know why I crave that feeling of nostalgia so much, but I do.