About Home & Loving Where You Live
July 02, 2012
Ever since I began my college the
concept of 'home' has been a little different for me. It's taken on new
meanings and implications. Nothing...nowhere feels permanent to me anymore and
I'm not entirely sure when somewhere will feel permanent. In these next few
years I'll be moving what feels like constantly from one place to the next,
shuffling me and my things to new venues to consider 'home.' Sure, my childhood
home is still 'home.' I retreat to it on breaks and when I just need to get
away for a bit. I settle back in during the summer and the winter months with
what weekends I can spare in between. There is an odd sense of knowing,
however, that this place will never be my permanent home ever again.
Freshman year of college, after a
few months I would catch myself calling my tiny little dorm room 'home.'
Perhaps, it was because I had anchored my life there, in my college town. I had
built routine and a mild sense of self sufficiency. I had a life away from my
parents and my family now. What a strange concept! I had friends, my sorority
sisters, plans when and how I wanted them to be. I was free to roam, no adult
telling me how to go about living my life (not that my parents had ever been
the overbearing sort). For the first time, I had a built a life for myself, a
world even, that revolved a new home...ie my dorm room.
Then I came home for the summer.
The first few weeks were hard settling back in. No longer was I free to go
about my days as I chose, but rather had to fall back in to a new routine. I
had to contact old friends and remake a life for myself different for the one I
had left here in my hometown at my parents home.
In the fall, I'll be moving in to
my first apartment and then that will be 'home' for a little while. Then the
next year or two I plan to live in the sorority house which will then become
another new 'home.'
But my true focus of this post is
to not exploit the different meanings of 'home,' but to give an all
encompassing look at loving where you live. I'm in love where I live (both in
my college town and in my hometown). When I returned to my home town for the
summer, I slowly began to rediscover little things that I liked about it. I
like how I know all the back roads, I love the Farmer's Market, and the
familiar snow cone stands. I like the open fields of the country that are only
a stone's throw away from a bustling suburbs. I love the back roads and the
park and the way I can hear little league baseball games from my backyard. It's
wonderful.
In my college town, I love
football game days. I love the energetic sea of people and the atmosphere of
those crisp summer to fall days. I love being with my friends and trying new
places to eat and stopping at new places to shop. I love being able to get lost
and find my way back. I love busy vibe of the city and the feel of being up in the
mountains. I like how calm campus is around four o'clock. I like always having
something to do because there are still so many things completely undiscovered.
So, I must beg the questions did you ever
struggle with the concept of 'home' and what do you love about where you live?
1 comments
this is good! I agree you should always love where you "live" that is where you spend most of your time!
ReplyDeletebeautiful.
have a great rest of your day!
~Morgan
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