Home
Well, Fall Break has come and gone for my alma mater. It wasn't very long ago, just about two years in fact, that I was still counting time by the number of breaks, and how soon it was that I would be home again. Now, I am off and married (just over 2 months), making a new home for myself. And, in uniting myself to my husband, I also unite myself to his family, and gain his childhood home as well. So now I have three homes: the one in which I grew up, the one in which my husband grew up, and the one we are making together. With so many, it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the places in conversation. For example, it is pretty simple to know where each of us is referring when we are in our home. But it was not quite so easy to keep things straight when we went back to his home in OH to visit last weekend. I would mention such and such a thing about home, and would be questioned as to which one I meant: ours in VA, or mine back in NH. Anyway, that trip is what started me thinking on the subject, and the remembrance of breaks helped to keep my interest.
With three "homes", I got to wondering what it is, exactly, which constitutes a home. Is it a particular place in which I have resided? The place I am currently residing? Is it "where the heart is"? Does it consist more of people, rather than location? Where fond memories can be found? Am I wrong to continue to think of a place where I am no longer living as my home? Such has been my train of thought these past few weeks, off and on.
All in all, I have come to understand that home is a wonderful conglomeration of almost all of the things queried above. Home, I believe, is almost a state of mind - it is the memory of joys and sorrows, fun times and incredibly boring times spent with those whom one loves, and applied to the place where one is either at the moment residing or the place where he once resided, if such memories exist. Thus it can be, that when one goes back to the home of his childhood, though it be it found crumbling beneath the weight of the years, such a place can and forever will be seen as home still.
Therefore, I shall feel guilt no longer when referring to NH as home, for it was there that the majority of the memories of my life thus far came into existence, and shall always be so dear to my heart because of it. I shall not fear to call OH my home as well, for I have been happily accepted into my husband's family, and many memories will be made there, which in the future will add to the richness of my life. Finally, I shall endeavor with all of my heart to transform this foreign place of VA into my home as well, fashioning for myself new memories which will enable me soon enough to fully think of this alien land as home too.
With three "homes", I got to wondering what it is, exactly, which constitutes a home. Is it a particular place in which I have resided? The place I am currently residing? Is it "where the heart is"? Does it consist more of people, rather than location? Where fond memories can be found? Am I wrong to continue to think of a place where I am no longer living as my home? Such has been my train of thought these past few weeks, off and on.
All in all, I have come to understand that home is a wonderful conglomeration of almost all of the things queried above. Home, I believe, is almost a state of mind - it is the memory of joys and sorrows, fun times and incredibly boring times spent with those whom one loves, and applied to the place where one is either at the moment residing or the place where he once resided, if such memories exist. Thus it can be, that when one goes back to the home of his childhood, though it be it found crumbling beneath the weight of the years, such a place can and forever will be seen as home still.
Therefore, I shall feel guilt no longer when referring to NH as home, for it was there that the majority of the memories of my life thus far came into existence, and shall always be so dear to my heart because of it. I shall not fear to call OH my home as well, for I have been happily accepted into my husband's family, and many memories will be made there, which in the future will add to the richness of my life. Finally, I shall endeavor with all of my heart to transform this foreign place of VA into my home as well, fashioning for myself new memories which will enable me soon enough to fully think of this alien land as home too.
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