There are some of us in the world who find our niche, settle in and enjoy the day in and day out lifestyle our hometown brings, but then there are the others who reach out beyond their boundaries with the idea that there is always a better place beyond that fence line. As for myself, I am definitely the latter.

Having been raised in a mobile household, life in a moving box was never unfamiliar ground. By the time I was legally an adult I found myself aboard a bus bound a few thousand miles away from home and in a completely different country. I always had my home base to come back too but what lie beyond that interested me more. As it has been said before, home is where the heart is, and I do truly believe that. Over the last ten years I have found my home in many areas of California, I have rested my head upon beds in other countries and even lived in very unconventional homes. As I grow up and of course older I do catch myself referring to a specified area in which my parents moved me to at the age of eighteen and then they moved away from leaving me to step into independence and adulthood. It was here that I met my closest friends, grew an undying love for the ocean and grew into the curious adult I am today.

The town has grown leaps and bounds since we moved back in 1997 and the last time I visited has been over a year, yet when I drive my car down highway 101 watching the agricultural fields while catching a whiff of the ocean breeze through my window my soul is warmed.

Ventura, California has always been the redheaded stepchild of Santa Barbara, but has grown into it's own over the years. The more I travel the more I realize how special this town. It is the kind of place where everyone knows each other, families take their afternoon strolls along the boardwalk while watching the waves crash along the beach. Neighbors ban together and even those who had once moved away come home to start families of their own. The Ventura I once knew still lies beneath the changing face you now see. The quirky used bookstores and random thrift stores are slowly being replaced by fancy restaurants and home furnishing stores. Many locals have mixed feelings of the changes, but in my mind the people make the town and those people are still alive and well.

As I continue to explore the world and search for that perfect place to live, I have yet to find one that moves Ventura away from my heart.

Learn more about this author, Patricia Poulin.
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