Imagine a place where you feel the most at home.

Now, what makes this place feel like home for you? Is it the bed you’ve slept in since you were seven? Is it your brothers in their respective rooms who would willingly play video games into eternity? Or is it more about the people you’re around rather than the place you’re in?

In college, it took me some time to find my group of friends. I’m glad I finally reached the point where college truly felt like the ‘home away from home’ we eventually hope for. Being at the dining halls, laughing, sharing our days with each other, I’d catch myself just looking around at everyone and feeling content with it all. Whether we were studying, walking around campus, as long as we were together I felt warmth and belonging. I felt at home and I didn’t ever want to leave.

Being the youngest of four, everybody grew up before me. This meant my brothers all went down their own paths. When it comes to family, I feel most at home whenever we are all back together. With all of our different schedules and homes, this is rare but it’s a feeling. The feeling of everyone being together, even if everything is a mess, that’s just as home should be. Everybody’s is different.

We’ve all been here before. His laughter brought you the joy that you thought you couldn’t live a day without. Whenever I would have a bad day, I’d look forward to seeing him because without a spoken word, I knew that everything would be just fine. He would warm up my blue. His arms felt like home.

Even though home can be a feeling that can last forever, sometimes it's inevitable that people move out.

When you lose sight of who you are, I hope you have people in your life that are willing to be your lighthouse and lead you back to where you belong. Hopefully, they bring you home emotionally as well as physically. Because you find home in one person doesn’t mean you are lost when they no longer find home in you.

Feeling happiness, you’re bursting with excitement. You feel like jumping around, being active and smiling. When you’re sad, your insides feel heavy. You feel like sinking. Identifying these in different situations is just how I feel with home. When I’m somewhere that feels like home, I'm enveloped in nostalgia and relief. I feel like I’m young, sitting in the living room with my family hiding from my dad’s camera as he tries to record everything we do while he can. I feel like my day has been reset. A clean slate. A happy default. You know, like when you would come home from a long day and you can just put everything down and think about the present. It’s a refreshing feeling. A fresh start. A sign of you powering through whatever is trying to bring you down.

Home feels like the color orange. Like an ember burning softly and endlessly. It’s warm, timeless, and a golden light that won’t ever dim. Home is a forever feeling when you find it amongst the right people.

Thank you for making me feel at home.