By Torie Wright - Icon fall intern

I’d like to start my internship at the Ada Icon with an introduction: "Hi."

In more seriousness, my name is Torie and I’ve lived in Ada nearly my entire life. I was born on the west coast, in Washington State, but my parents and I moved to Ada (where my dad was born and raised) before I was a year old. My 22nd birthday is quickly approaching, and Ada is still my home. No matter where I end up, Ada will always be my home.

A lot has happened to me in this place: I became a big sister, I made lifelong friends, I had a baby. Those things, among the uncountable others, make it hard to leave.

I’m in my fourth year at The Ohio State University at Lima. The real world is barreling, unfaltering, my way with unknown opportunities that could send me anywhere in the world. But Ada is what I know. Ada has seen me fail and succeed.

Ada has driven me nearly mad with boredom, but has also extended a hand of comforting familiarity. I always dreamed of the day I could get away from this town, the day I could escape into endless city streets and never look back.

My outlook is much different now.

I’ve been to the big cities, bumping into strangers with every footstep and sitting on the highway surrounded by a wall of other cars. Though they offer hours—heck, days—of adventure, those cities are foreign to me. That’s what makes them exciting, but that’s also what makes them scary. They tend to lose their appeal rather quickly as I begin to crave the familiarity and closeness of Ada.

I don’t know where I’m going to end up after graduation, but there’s one thing I do know for sure: I can always come home.