I recently returned to Fayetteville. When I was a soldier in the U.S. Army, I was stationed at Ft. Bragg for four years.  Over those years, when I wasn't deployed, I enjoyed the culture, nightlife, and friendships that Fayetteville had to offer. In the almost three years that I have been away from Fayetteville, the close friends that remained behind has dwindled to two or three. No matter how much I enjoyed the military life, one drawback is the constant deployment or transferring of soldiers away from Ft. Bragg. Also, on my return, I found that the bars that were popular when I was here are slow or disappeared, the friends that I drank with are gone, and the town has a different feel and tempo.
    But some places are the same.
    One place in particular that I had always enjoyed when I lived here was The Coffee Scene.  The morning after I returned to town, I got up out of bed, grabbed my coffee mug and drove to "The Scene." As I walked in the door, the barista behind the counter waved a hearty hello, asked if I wanted my regular and, with my assenting nod, filled my mug up with house black. We chatted for a few minutes in the lull between customers and she was surprised to find that I had been away for three years.  To her, I had only been gone "a little while".
    As I get reacquainted with Fayetteville, search out the best clubs and make new friends, I at least know that I have a place that has weathered the transitions and still remains a little bit of home in the sea of changes.