Trying Atlanta On

This trip to Atlanta was different from the others. I was not passing through for work or visiting friends. I was trying to picture my life there, because I was seriously thinking about making the move.

I started at Centennial Olympic Park, where the Olympic legacy still shapes the green space at the heart of downtown, then walked among the towers, the old theater signs, and the gold dome of the Capitol. Dr. King stands in bronze on the Capitol grounds, and a short walk east in the Old Fourth Ward, Ebenezer Baptist Church still anchors Auburn Avenue, where his story began.

I was not looking at Atlanta the way a visitor does. I was asking whether it could be home, and every street I walked felt like part of the answer.