I'm stuck in Oz

A strange thing happened to me tonight.  I went to see my students' fabulous performance of "The Wiz".
The musical was just starting and here comes Dorothy, talking with Auntie Em about a storm that's coming and poor Dorothy gets caught up in the tornado.  And I started to cry.
"What's wrong?" I asked myself.  "Why are you crying?"
I paused to let myself collect my thoughts...
"I'm just... so... " and then it hit me, "homesick".
Now, you might be thinking, "Hey, this girl is deep!  She relates to Dorothy's plight before she even makes it to Oz!"  Sadly, friend, you are wrong.  It's much more simple than that.  I recently moved across the country from the one and only, Kansas.  You may not know this, but when you live in Kansas there are Wizard of Oz references everywhere.  Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and that lovable Cowardly Lion are there to greet us at every gas station, gift shop, and grocery store.  They become a part of your everyday life whether you notice them or not.  And watching Dorothy tonight be swept away from that place I once called home just did me in.  She and that "little dog, too" are literally reminders of my old home.
But my homesickness isn't about a physical location because Kansas is, after all, horribly boring.  (No offense, guys).  For me the wave of homesickness that hit me was more of a grieving over the loss of a chapter in my life.  Kansas represents so much for me.  It's where I spread my little baby wings of independence.  It's where I started my life with my husband.  It's where my cats are from.  It's where I met some of my dearest and closest friends.  It's where I grew from a teenager, to a young woman.  I can never go back to that precious time in my life where everything felt so fresh and new.  I cannot live in the dorms of my alma mater with those sweet young girls and contemplate with them, "Where exactly does the freshman 15 come from if you have to walk everywhere in this town?".
The doors have closed and I've moved on.  And unlike Dorothy, I can never really "go home".  I have to grow up and make my home somewhere else.  My heart is having a hard time with this.  But I think that's ok.  I'm learning more and more how important it is to be gracious with ourselves because we are all, to some extent, stuck in Oz.