About a decade ago, after finishing graduate school at Johns Hopkins University, I entered the market to become a first time homebuyer. I had no clue what I was doing, but somehow I also knew exactly what I was doing. I was deciding on a place that my family and I could call home.

Yes, I considered work. I even considered what I liked to do and proximity to those things. I would commute all around the DC metro area looking at houses. When I stepped into what would become my home in Seat Pleasant for the first time, I knew it was the one. It was perfect—for me and my family!

However, as I began to grow personally and professionally, there came a time where I had to decide if I was going to stay in my home. I had to decide if I was going to stay in Seat Pleasant. Much of the decision was easy. As I began to reflect on, think about and better prepare for the future I wanted for me and my family, I realized something—making a house a forever home requires work in the house, on the house and, most importantly, beyond the house. It was simple. The decision to stay was also the decision to act!