Where the Heart Is

Gratitude Challenge - Week 36 - Your Home

Home is where the heart is.

Last week, I wrote about the four different neighborhoods that have spanned my 18 year life. I lived nine years in Portland, Oregon, and I have lived nine years in Colorado. When I leave for college in a few months, I will start a new era of my life, perhaps living another nine years in a new place. 

Because I have lived in four different houses in two different states, my concept of home became fluid. For years after I moved to Colorado, when people asked me where my home was, I did not hesitate to say, "Portland." As more time passed, I lost a sense of my identity when I could not pinpoint where my home was. Is it where I live or where my heart is? Now, I tell people I am from Colorado, but I usually add that I grew up in Oregon. 

I cannot negate the time I have spent in Colorado, nor ignore the crucial part of my childhood I spent in Oregon. Both have become part of my concept of home, but these two places do not encompass all of what my home is or means.

Home is not a house or a building or even a person. To me, home is the sum of my surroundings. I feel at home with my friends at school or even on a vacation with my family. 

Ironically, as I write this post, I am in Los Angeles, visiting a college on a spring break trip. Yet, I still feel at home with my family. Next year, the biggest shock to me will be reinventing my concept of home to encompass a place without my family.

Alas, home is where the heart is. And sometimes, my heart may be in different places, and therefore, so is my home.