I had no way to wrap my mind around how much living in the middle of the big city had affected me. It hardened my spirit in ways I didn’t even see. When we were traveling in rural Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia this summer, it still didn’t quite register because I knew exactly where I was going back to. Denver was home, it represented normal, and even two months away from that place didn’t do a whole lot to soften me up. I think when we live in cities, people start to take one another for granted because we’re stacked so tightly on top of one another.