What Makes Home, Home

As mentioned in my previous post, part of my self-reflection journey this summer is defining home. I thought about it constantly while I was in North Carolina and realized the answers to these complicated questions can sometimes be as simple as we think they are.

What makes home is the connection.

It is an answer so simple, yet complicated.

I had a meeting with the Dean of Students at UNC Asheville and told her of trying to figure out the definition of home and her answer was as simple as that: it's the connection.

Now that I have a better understanding of what made North Carolina feel like home, it weird to think of it in regards to my future.

North Carolina felt like home for many reasons: the people, the staff, the community. It was just my type of lifestyle. I can't help but to think the lifestyle there is the way life is meant to be lived. It is calm and peaceful. People aren't in a rush all the time and they actually enjoy their lives on a daily basis--not just for a day or so, but just...it's a lifestyle. It makes me rethink a lot of things...where I want to live, the type of school I want to work in, etc.

Finding home has been one of my biggest challenges during my grad school journey and I think it's a challenge I am going to continue to face for a few more years. There are three places in my head right now: North Carolina, New Jersey, and Miami. It is difficult to sort out, but North Carolina was my home this summer. As for Miami, I struggled a lot (and still do) with finding that connection. And, Jersey, well, that connection is becoming less and less.

I'm somewhat optimistic about returning to Miami in a few weeks. I am starting my second year of grad school and I am living in a new place. It is a new chance to me to find that connection. At the same time, I remember the loneliness and homesickness I felt my first year there. Yet, I go back to Miami with a new perspective. A perspective of what home is and how I have the power to make it. I have done a lot of self-reflection and have personally grown a lot this summer.

A new adventure starts in a few weeks.