How would you answer that question? At first you may think, "It's simple, you can only have one home. Duh." If someone would have asked me this question at the beginning of my freshman year, that is exactly what I would have said. Before college, I thought that home is where your family lived. Home is the place you were comfortable being yourself and where you lived around the people you loved. "A person can't really have two homes," I thought going into my freshman year of college.
In the beginning, I kept this thought in the back of my head. "This isn't home," I'd think as I'd sleep in my too small bed, as I took showers in the shared bathroom and ate Caf food. Sure, it's a nice place and a good education, but not home.
Slowly, campus began to feel more comfortable, and as the fall semester went on, I found places I liked to go and people I loved to be with. "Okay, sure it feels comfortable, but it's still not home," I would think as I walked around campus and my dorm building. Over time, I found a solid group of friends and felt more included around campus and my dorm. I got to know the city surrounding campus a bit better and started to like being at school.
Every day, I was becoming more close with my friends and without realizing it, I was comfortable being myself around them (props to them because I'm a really big dork). Our dorm rooms started to feel less like prison cells and more like a cozy little homes.
During winter break was the first time I called my college "home." I did it unknowingly and almost like I had said it multiple times before. "But this is my home," I thought as I wondered why I called my college campus home. After winter break was over and it was time to say goodbye to my family, I found myself having mixed feelings about returning. Sure, it was exciting to say home, but it was also exciting to see my friends and wingmates after a month off.
Soon, winter passed and summer came along with final exams and summer break. As the last two weeks of college came quickly, I found myself thinking more and more about whether or not college was my new "home." So I made a list of what my home with my family has versus what my "home" at college has.
In both places, I have people who I care about and people who care about me. At school and home, I feel able to be myself, safe and happy. I feel comfortable living in both places and I enjoy being in both places. So... maybe college is a new home?
The week of moving out really answered this question for me. It was a bittersweet time where I was finally going home for the summer but also realizing I was leaving another home behind.
Home isn't defined simply as the place you were born or the place you grew up. Home is about having people around that you love and who also love you. It's a place where you feel comfortable to be who you are and where you also feel safe. This is the place where you have great memories and continue to make new ones. These things are what make a place home, and I can say that after this first year of college, I can easily call my college a second home.
