“Home” has always been something that I carry around with me. Whether this means the physical space that I grew up in or the feeling I get when I’m with my best friends, I think that it’s important for everyone to know this feeling.

To feel familiarity and welcomed can make anywhere feel like “home.” I thought that nothing would compare to the physical place in which I spent all of my time. And to some extent, going home still feels like home. I enjoy going to the coffee shop where I know every barista, I love sitting in my friends’ backyards during the warmer months, and running to Dunkin during happy hour never gets old. It was difficult to adapt when I chose to go somewhere else that had absolutely none of that.

I know that this was something my friends from home were going through, too. We often had conversations that ran hours, discussing everything we used to do and everything we did for the last time when it was our permanent home. It was bittersweet and we were excited to grow up and have new perspectives so we can reconvene during breaks. Filling each other in on every little detail regardless of the fact that we’ve kept in constant contact has changed the town we grew up in to be a “meet in the middle” kind of place.

In less than a year, my home went from being somewhere that I greatly identified with to being the place that I know will be the same, no matter how much time passes and how much I change.

It was difficult to acclimate to this new “home” that I brought myself into and I almost refused to do so at first. However, I have learned to make this new place feel like “home.” I have found people that make me feel comfortable and make me want to come back every time I leave. I have found coffee shops that I can frequent and know the baristas almost as well as the coffee shop at home. Making somewhere feel like “home” can be difficult at first but being flexible makes it so much easier.

The things that I have learned from this is that as long as you have the open-mind and you’re willing to accept the things that are thrown at you, it gets easier. I thought that I would always feel out of place and that there was something else waiting for me in a completely different town. I always had one bag packed and ready to go, and to some extent I still do. I realize that there are so many opportunities I could take advantage of, but I also realize that staying in one place for four years doesn’t have to be so bad.

Knowing that you have things that can act as your rock no matter where you are in your life or who you are as a person is the basis of this “home” feeling. And honestly, it’s the best feeling in the world.