I registered to vote yesterday.
This means that I am now a resident of Washington State.
I've been here four months, but I wasn't a resident. I'll get a Washington State license soon, and re-register my car. Soon I'll have a job. And a place to live. At some point in the not too distant future, I'll own a home in this state.
None of those things are what will have determined residency, though. The fact that yesterday I filled out a voter registration card and mailed it make me a resident of Washington State.
Since before I could conceive of distinctions like states and borders, I've been a resident of California, and I still have an abiding affection for the state. I knew as soon as I arrived in Washington that this is where I belong, but I felt the strangest sense of disloyalty and guilt in filling out that voter registration card.
That feeling of guilt is gone now, though, and I am glad to finally make it official. It won't really be home until my wife is here, and I won't be settled until we have our dogs. I won't be truly content until we have a home, but at least now I can be counted amongst my people - the people of Washington State.
