Exactly Where: DC

I’ve wanted to live in Washington, DC since I was 16. Having been a bit of a political junkie for as long as I can remember—picking a favorite presidential candidate in 1988, religiously watching the State of the Union address every year, reading The Economist as a freshman in high school—everything felt right when I first arrived in the capital for my junior class trip. As we toured DC and its surrounding areas, I was excited to be where I thought it all happened. Seeing the Capitol Building gave me goosebumps, and I’m pretty sure that I stared somewhat slack-jawed at the White House. And it didn’t hurt that I was completely enchanted by the federal-style architecture and the grandeur of the government buildings. It just felt right to be somewhere that held so much history, and continued to play a vital role in the making of that history. I knew then that I would live in Washington, DC.

I spent two summers here during college. While interning, I would spend quiet evenings sitting alone at the back of the Jefferson Memorial, collecting my thoughts and feeling content with the knowledge that I was where I believed to be the center of the universe. Countless other short trips for conferences and vacations solidified my desire to make the city my permanent home. I would wander the Capitol grounds, all the while still feeling those goosebumps. And I spent my time in Chicago dreaming about the time I would spend away—one of the (true) reasons I gave a boyfriend for the end of a relationship was I knew that if we stayed together, I’d never live in DC. Nothing was going to stop me.

A few years later, with a law school summer and a year and a half of permanent residency under my belt, nothing has stopped me—I’m exactly where I always thought I wanted to be.