Everyone says, “Home is where the heart is." It is an undeniable truth that our sense of place is a result of the emotional attachment we share with a particular space or people.
Home for many is their childhood hometown where everyone knows your name and the winding streets are engrained in your memory forever. Perhaps it's the hustle and bustle of your current residence, the familiar place you drop your mail on the counter, the view you take in as you eat breakfast every morning, the white noise in the background as you fall asleep. Maybe it's your place of worship where a faithful congregation awaits, or the high school you crossed so many milestones at. Maybe it's your university where you embark on a perpetuating journey navigating work, friendships and love.
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The term home is limitless. We leave our heart among those who have touched us throughout our lives. Whether you have lived in the same town forever or you have traveled the word, your home moves and molds as your life intertwines with those around you.
For me, my home is the white gate welcoming me after school each afternoon at our house in Houston. It's running through Tulip fields in Holland with my brother and sister. It's cardboard boxes and hugs and tears the year I moved, but the giggles and new beginnings waiting to catch me in North Carolina. It's Tours, France where I first studied abroad and spent so many afternoons at the river laughing with friends. It's Wake Forest, where I've fallen in and out of love, been challenged beyond my expectations and met lifelong friends.
So often we say, “I can't wait to go home." But what are we waiting for? To travel to the places we once defined as our “home"? To relive the memories when that place was our “home"?
I think it's a better use of our time to focus on the present. What's here and now is our home. Our home is where our heart is and our hearts are alive and beating today. It's the connections we make and the relationships we create that turn an empty space to a place deemed home. Heartache will ensue, but we continue on because of the people that surround us. The memories and friendships welcome us home every single time.
