In November, I wrote a list out of things I was grateful for, from the small to the profound, and I find that it’s a wonderful way to boost your confidence in the everyday. This list included the phrase: “Knowing that Boston still stands & I can always go home.”

I have a bad habit of mentally longing for easier places to live – places where I already know the social & economic landscape (Maine); or where I have the comfort and familiarity of family and friends (South Carolina or Southern Virginia); places that miss me as much I miss them (DC); places that afford me a no-strings-attached approach to life (Rome or Paris or some other exotic, impossible locale). I have trouble, mentally, internally, giving Boston enough credit. And so here we go, after the jump, a list of things I’m grateful to Boston for, to get me through this short-week version of a hump day:

A lack of humidity. Caring and hilarious co-workers. The opportunity to be involved in a community & government that actually cares about green/environmental issues. Insightful friends. The Young Dems, who have welcomed me with open arms & minds despite my two decades of volunteering/working with the Dark Side (& the awesome members of the Greater Boston Young Dems who voted me in to be their Secretary!). The chance to reconnect with friends & family from Maine (whom I haven’t visited in over three years now). The relief that writing honestly can bring. People who appreciate you & your work & say as much. Boston.com’s Love Letters (advice columns are a guilty pleasure of mine, this is one of the more entertaining I’ve ever discovered). Fort Point. Finally being able to claim Dorchester By Choice (DBC) – proudly. Sharing a home with the love of my life, a relationship that I doubt I will ever be able to justify with language. Being close to the water again (I grew up near coastal Maine, the smell of the ocean is a must have for my mental clarity & strength. Boston brings me close enough every day). Tall buildings (they simply do not exist anywhere else I’ve lived & there is something so beautiful about them). The Commons. Dorchester Day. Sidebar. Irish pubs that you can actually hear Irish accents in. A bustling, delicious Little Italy in the North End (DC doesn’t have a Little Italy! The tragedy!). Friends who will pick you up on a Sunday afternoon just to take your lazy butt grocery shopping because you don’t have a car. Sunday night dinner parties & BBQs galore. The State Democratic Convention, where I had a complete blast. Scholar’s. The amount of history I walk by every single day just getting to work. The campus at U Mass Boston, which is a nice languid walk from my apartment; Harbor Point is one of my favorite places in the city.