Where is home?
I've been asking myself this question alot lately. Growing up, home was my parents house and the suburban Pennsylvania town I lived. I associate all kinds of good memories with that place. Christmas, Thanksgiving, high school parties, swimming in the pool...etc. In university I got my own place with some friends and haven't been a permanent resident in my parents house since. Now I visit 3 or 4 times a year and though there is the same sense of familiarity and good memories when I'm there, I feel like a visitor in that house.
At 23, I met a guy, fell in love and moved with him to the UK. Pretty soon anywhere I went with him I was at home. Our crappy flat, his childhood house, hotels in new cities...they all had a sense of home because he was there. I was comfortable and safe.
A few years later...the big move to Canada to buy our first place. At the time I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. The cracks in the relationship that were ignored in the UK became larger now that we were "settled" and eventually we decided to move on. I'm now in my second post-break up apartment and still feel unsettled and a little lost. No family in Canada and although I have great friends...we have known each other for less than 2 years. When will that feeling of safety and comfort be back?
Where do you call home? How has that changed over the years?
I've been asking myself this question alot lately. Growing up, home was my parents house and the suburban Pennsylvania town I lived. I associate all kinds of good memories with that place. Christmas, Thanksgiving, high school parties, swimming in the pool...etc. In university I got my own place with some friends and haven't been a permanent resident in my parents house since. Now I visit 3 or 4 times a year and though there is the same sense of familiarity and good memories when I'm there, I feel like a visitor in that house.
At 23, I met a guy, fell in love and moved with him to the UK. Pretty soon anywhere I went with him I was at home. Our crappy flat, his childhood house, hotels in new cities...they all had a sense of home because he was there. I was comfortable and safe.
A few years later...the big move to Canada to buy our first place. At the time I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. The cracks in the relationship that were ignored in the UK became larger now that we were "settled" and eventually we decided to move on. I'm now in my second post-break up apartment and still feel unsettled and a little lost. No family in Canada and although I have great friends...we have known each other for less than 2 years. When will that feeling of safety and comfort be back?
Where do you call home? How has that changed over the years?
2 comments:
I don't think I've really ever felt at home, except for at my parents' house.
I've moved about 6 times in the last 7 years and so I never feel like anything is permanent.
Though from about the age of 13 on, I wanted to get out of my parents' house too.
Maybe it takes many many years to really get that feeling on your own.
The upside is that I'm (and perhaps you as well) don't feel tied down to anything. That's a great feeling...anything is possible...
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