Can I Go Home? | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Student Life

Can I Go Home?

I'll have to find it first.

26
Can I Go Home?
Flickr

I lived in the same house from when I was five until I left for college at eighteen, and my parents and grandmother still live there now. When I headed off to Chicago to attend university, that house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was the only home I had ever known.

Gradually, though, Chicago became my home. I developed a strong connection to the city, and it was about 50/50 whether I responded “Chicago” or “Michigan” when someone asked where I was from. I lived in Hyde Park, a neighborhood on the mid-South Side, but I worked as far north as Evanston, the first suburb north of the city proper and an hour’s drive from my apartment. The whole sweep of the city along the lake unfolded before me each day as I drove up Lakeshore Drive, and shrunk back again as I drove back in the evening, growing more and more familiar until I knew each building and then I was home.

This year, though, I’m living in New Haven, Connecticut, as my wife attends law school. Next year, I’ll be living in Columbus, Ohio. For this year, New Haven is home. Next year and for four years after that, Columbus will be home. This amount of moving is not uncommon for people in their twenties, and I don’t really mind it. But it does leave me in a strange place when I think about what home means. Home ends up being wherever I’m not. When I say, “I’m going home,” it means that I am leaving the place I am in to go to a place that I more properly belong. But where is that? I spent the most time in Michigan, but I haven’t lived there for six years now. I currently live in New Haven, but I am still very much tied to Chicago.

Last week, my wife and I spent a week visiting friends in Chicago. Riding the train from the airport, I felt a swell of satisfaction. Here is the elevated train that is so characteristic of my home. Here the brick apartment buildings, with winding wooden staircases on the back. Here the Loop’s GPS-defying skyscrapers. I felt a strange sense of ownership over them. These are my places, whether or not I have ever stepped foot inside a given building or lived in a neighborhood.

This weekend, I’ll be in Michigan. However, when I go back to Michigan, it doesn’t quite feel like home. It doesn’t not feel like it, either, because my childhood house and my family is there, not to mention the schools I went to and the parks I played in, et cetera. It’s a feeling like coming home, but shifted sideways. I used to belong to these places, I think. But now they are someone else’s. There are restaurants I have never heard of, right next to my high school. There are snow storms that happened this winter that I never felt a flake of.

How much of “home” is just feeling like you own your surroundings? That’s my coffee shop, where I go every morning. That’s my library to study in. It’s disquieting to feel that sense of home slipping away from places that used to be home. I still know my way around Ann Arbor, but I don’t know if it’s home anymore. And I don’t know if that is some kind of betrayal to the people whom it was home with, my family and friends who still live there. I didn’t make a decision to leave Ann Arbor off my lists of homes, but it seems like it’s sliding off anyway. How long before that happens with Chicago? With New Haven? Is any entry on that list permanent?

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Entertainment

Every Girl Needs To Listen To 'She Used To Be Mine' By Sara Bareilles

These powerful lyrics remind us how much good is inside each of us and that sometimes we are too blinded by our imperfections to see the other side of the coin, to see all of that good.

125740
Every Girl Needs To Listen To 'She Used To Be Mine' By Sara Bareilles

The song was sent to me late in the middle of the night. I was still awake enough to plug in my headphones and listen to it immediately. I always did this when my best friend sent me songs, never wasting a moment. She had sent a message with this one too, telling me it reminded her so much of both of us and what we have each been through in the past couple of months.

Keep Reading...Show less
Zodiac wheel with signs and symbols surrounding a central sun against a starry sky.

What's your sign? It's one of the first questions some of us are asked when approached by someone in a bar, at a party or even when having lunch with some of our friends. Astrology, for centuries, has been one of the largest phenomenons out there. There's a reason why many magazines and newspapers have a horoscope page, and there's also a reason why almost every bookstore or library has a section dedicated completely to astrology. Many of us could just be curious about why some of us act differently than others and whom we will get along with best, and others may just want to see if their sign does, in fact, match their personality.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

20 Song Lyrics To Put A Spring Into Your Instagram Captions

"On an island in the sun, We'll be playing and having fun"

28026
Person in front of neon musical instruments; glowing red and white lights.
Photo by Spencer Imbrock on Unsplash

Whenever I post a picture to Instagram, it takes me so long to come up with a caption. I want to be funny, clever, cute and direct all at the same time. It can be frustrating! So I just look for some online. I really like to find a song lyric that goes with my picture, I just feel like it gives the picture a certain vibe.

Here's a list of song lyrics that can go with any picture you want to post!

Keep Reading...Show less
Chalk drawing of scales weighing "good" and "bad" on a blackboard.
WP content

Being a good person does not depend on your religion or status in life, your race or skin color, political views or culture. It depends on how good you treat others.

We are all born to do something great. Whether that be to grow up and become a doctor and save the lives of thousands of people, run a marathon, win the Noble Peace Prize, or be the greatest mother or father for your own future children one day. Regardless, we are all born with a purpose. But in between birth and death lies a path that life paves for us; a path that we must fill with something that gives our lives meaning.

Keep Reading...Show less
Health and Wellness

10 Hygiene Tips For All College Athletes

College athletes, it's time we talk about sports hygiene.

26114
Woman doing pull-ups on bars with sun shining behind her.

I got a request to talk about college athletes hygiene so here it is.

College athletes, I get it, you are busy! From class, to morning workouts, to study table, to practice, and more. But that does not excuse the fact that your hygiene comes first! Here are some tips when it comes to taking care of your self.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments