For five and a half years, Philadelphia was my home away from home. It was the longest I ever lived in any one place over the course of my career, and it didn’t disappoint.
During that time, I got married, had kids, and covered too many big breaking news stories to count. Since I’ve returned home, people always seem to want to know why I left and for me the answer is simple.
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I wanted to live more.
After the birth of our twins, my husband and I started thinking about how much sweeter life would be if we had family nearby. It seemed like a far off dream at the time, and man, did it feel that much further away once the pandemic started.
The pandemic put life into perspective for me as I’m sure it did for many of you. As a twin mom, who was expecting a third child at the time, working to cover news of a deadly new virus on the frontlines was scary and isolating.
Seeing so many people whose lives were cut short really had me thinking about how important it was for me to live my life with purpose. I didn’t want to just wake up, go to work, go home and care for my kids until it was bedtime every day. I wanted create better memories.
I want my kids to know their grandparents. I want them to grow up spending quality time baking in the kitchen with their Nana and planting flowers in the yard with their Pop Pop.
I want to show them all of the spots I treasured growing up as a kid.
I can’t wait to take them to Frankenmuth and Niagara Falls. I hope we can catch the Northern Lights over the Mackinac Bridge one day.
I’m super excited to take them to the Fox Theatre to see their first show, and I am so looking forward to hitting up Comerica Park in our Tigers gear. I especially can’t wait to watch my kids grow up being best friends with my friends’ kids!
If I get extra lucky, I’ll have three Michigan Wolverines on my hands! But hey, either way, being back home is a victory enough.
(You can follow Pamela on Twitter and Facebook)