I’ve always been the type of person who looked their own bed at night. I was never super big on sleepovers, with the exception, of course, of my grandparents and my best friends who were practically family. I always thought that I felt this way because my bed with particularly comfortable or what have you, but in reality, I realize that the bed wasn’t even the biggest reason I wanted to be home.

I wanted to be home because I knew that my parents were right down the hall, and that I could fall asleep to the buzz of my brother’s TV through the wall. I could sleep with my cat at my feet and I’d wake up only to probably fall asleep on my mom’s lap as she watched Law & Order and stroked my hair.

I’ve come to realize that “home” is a bit of a relative term. I’ve always thought of home as the physical house in which I lived with my family. But recently, within the last three or four years, I’ve had my perception altered on that front. I realized that if my bed were in a different house, it would still be my bed, and that in a different house I could still hear the buzz of my brother’s TV through a different wall. I could lay on my mom’s lap in a different house, and it wouldn’t make any difference.

A house is more of a “home base,” than an actual home. Home are the people and love in it. When I move out and don’t live with my mother anymore, her lap will still always be home. When I get married, wherever I’m living with my spouse will be our own home base, but watching our nightly shows and laughing about our days is the “home” aspect.

It took a few years, and a lot of bad things, for me to develop this way of thinking. I realized that if we packed up and left my childhood home tomorrow, yes of course it would be difficult, but I know that wherever my family and I go, that we will plant seeds there, and grow there, just have we have wherever we have been planted.

You see, home is all about the love that blossoms around you, no matter the location. Mary Engelbreit, author, once said, “bloom where you’re planted,” and for the first time ever this quote has really resonated with me. I realize that the complete love and support I’ve been so fortunate to experience throughout my life has given me the ability to go wherever, do whatever, and bloom and thrive no matter the location.

My family and life bloomed and thrived in our home, but slowly, the petals on our childhood began to wilt, as happens naturally as children grow up and plant their own seeds. However, the strong roots from my parents and my siblings will give me the ability to replant these roots, and build a loving and safe home for my own children, when the time comes.

With being on the brink of my next stage of life, I find that I was so incredibly lucky to have had the parents, siblings, family and friends, with an unbreakable bond of memories and trust. With that, I will leave with a quote from another noteworthy author, and I believe this, in its entirety, embodies what a “home” is:

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost,

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

-J. R. R Tolkien