Home is where the heart is...

Spending time with Maddie’s and Lucy’s families in Melbourne and Sydney got me thinking about what it means to be at home. I had such a terrific time with those lovely individuals and families that welcomed me into their lives. It wasn’t one thing in particular, but more so their hospitality as a whole that made me feel at home. This is something I am having a hard time articulating. Basically it was rejuvenating to be in that setting again, surrounded by the family dynamic - the love.

In the past year I have lived in many places –Bodega Bay, California; Meadville, Pennsylvania; Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; Townsville, Australia and I have spent a week each in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Sydney and Melbourne and am about to head to Jakarta for two months. All of this moving around has caused me to question the idea of a home. Don’t get me wrong, my home is with my family in Pennsylvania, but when you are travelling around so much away from home, I have realized I am beginning to create a “home” wherever I go. Some of the things one gets in a home-setting are love, comfort, support, and happiness along with a home-cooked meal now and again. Allegheny College, for example, has become a second home to me. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Townsville too has become a home for me; a place where I have began planting roots and feeling as though I do and have always belonged. When this feeling of settling down happens the friends I make become my immediate family, my dormitory becomes my bedroom and living room and my home-cooked meal come in the form of questionable dining-hall food prepared by a sweaty, angry chef named Steve.

They say home is where the heart is. Well, based on the different directions my heart is being pulled and the places and people I have fallen in love with, home to me can be a few different places –I wouldn’t have it any other way.