I don’t think anyone believes when they arrive to the Naval Academy on I-day that they will ever refer to this place as home. But then, in just a matter of time you start catching yourself. Without even meaning to it slips out, and before you know it you have called this place home.

Wait, what?

The Naval Academy!? Home?

Was I crazy?

The first time I did this, I brushed it off and pretended it didn't happen, I’m sure a lot of you did the same. It had to have been just a slip of the tongue. It felt weird and in a way I even felt guilty. Home was where I went to get away from here. It was a flight away. Home was where I grew up. Home was where I went for the holidays. Home is where I see my family. Norwood, Massachusetts was my home. This most definitely was not my home.

Then it happened again. And again. And again.

Every time I reacted the same way as before, until one day when it all felt different. It was third block of summer training and I was at MAGTF at Camp Pendleton in California. I had been away from the convenience of my friends, my roommates, my teammates, my mentors, my classmates, my sponsor family, etc. being no more than ten minutes away. I missed Annapolis. I was ready to go back, I wanted summer to be over and I just wanted to be back on the yard. I actually missed the Academy. It was then that I realized why I kept calling the the Naval Academy “home”-besides the fact that I had lived there for the past eight months. To me, home now had a different meaning. Home wasn’t about location anymore. It was about the people. I missed the people. The people I had just lived life with and formed friendships with for the past eight months. They had become my family.

I don’t think I have been more excited to come back to the academy than I was at Fall Reform. I strangely felt a huge sense of comfort and happiness. I was ready to be back. Seeing all the familiar faces, hugging everyone, and telling each other all about our summers, I was with my family again.

In this moment I realized why I was here, I loved this place and what it was all about and I loved the people who I’m surrounded by here both on and off the yard. But my love for the Academy definitely doesn’t mean I don’t face struggles here, because I’ll be the first to tell you I have faced many struggles since I have been here and will continue to face more for the rest of my life. But that’s life. It may not always be easy, it may not always be fun, and the Academy may eat away at you at times, but that’s the reason I am so close with these people. We all help each other get through our struggles. Most of us are just a bunch of people-persons preparing to go into a people business. We are there for each other during the good times and pick each other up during the bad.

I have awesome friends, awesome sponsors, awesome mentors, awesome opportunities and I am surrounded by awesome people every day who I care about and who care about me. There is always someone new to meet, a conversation to be had, and a story to be told. The best piece of advice I have been given was to find someone or something that I love here so I always want to come back, and I have. I get to do the things I love, work towards my dream, and learn a whole lot about myself and those around me. I can be my normal sassy self and joke around, but also be serious when I need to be. Most importantly, I have found a new home here—a home where I am a part of something that is much bigger than myself, and a place that I look forward to coming back to because of the people who make it a home.

I am so glad I get to be apart of a great big Navy family, inside and outside of these walls, across the country, and around the world. Who ever said you can’t have more than one home?

"The views expressed, [in this article] reflect personal opinions of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy, any federal agency, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government"