It’s safe to say that anytime a true northerner up and moves to the south, that person is in for more than a simple relocation into a warmer climate. With that, you should probably check your Yankee cap at the door because, the farther you travel below the Mason-Dixon Line, the more grits and slow-talking southern twang you’re about to embrace. That’s right, my short time in areas surrounding Atlanta introduced me to the very beginnings of what can be quite a bit of culture change.

Now, that isn’t to say that the north doesn’t have some interesting and, what some might classify as, difficult character traits. I’ve paid close attention to that over the last few days in my journey back to the New Jersey Sky Blue FC (yes the dream is not yet dead, as I’m back in WPS). The only trouble is, inasmuch as I am aware of all the reasons I like to make fun of the state of New Jersey, my recent release and relocation actually allowed me to see differently all the things I used to hate on:

For example, I didn’t hang my head out the window to gently, at the top of my lungs, threaten the lives of the cars in front of me in saying I’d show them who their daddy was if they didn’t learn how to merge; I didn’t nearly choke on my own dry heave from the smell that always guides me through Newark; I didn’t even mind that I nearly lost my entire vehicle in on of those cavernous, back-road gorges gravely mislabeled and referred to as a simple pothole. Rather, I welcomed the solid 2-hour traffic nightmare on that horrendous bottleneck on the New Jersey Turnpike; I appreciated the smell of hard work in Newark; And I spent some time admiring the fact that the alignment in my steering was now so remarkably off from a “pothole” ... All of this because I knew what would be waiting for me once I was back with the team at Sky Blue.

It feels good to be back. However, this is not, on the surface, the same Sky Blue FC I left back in September of last year. Not that it should be either. What are the differences, you ask?  Well, Tash has some more tattoos - that in and of itself is probably blog-worthy. Pearcie (Christie Rampone) has another beautiful little girl in tow and is getting herself back into game shape after her pregnancy (incredible I know and also blog-worthy). There is a new coaching staff and about 10 new players compared to last year’s squad. Yet somehow, something seems like the same ol’ Sky blue ... I’m just not sure what that is yet.

I do know that, whether in things like the fact that one player has more tattoos than the rest of the league combined or that we have breast feeding on sidelines and in meetings, something about this team has always been and continues to be unique and special. The journey helps me to further realize that. So, it’s not all bad that I took the long route back here.

Rest assured that from east to west or north to dirty south - regardless of where the road trips take us or where my suitcase lands next, - I’ll be sure to keep it coming from the dirtiest state of them all - New Jersey (I mean that lovingly).