Home. Even the word immediately invokes a sense of nostalgia without really meaning to. I've been thinking about home lately, being a study abroad student who hasn't really been home for the past three months. Now, I know, three months away from home is probably equivalent to a second for some people. None the less, I know that many of us yearn for home even after being away from it for a week, a couple days, a night out.

But what does it mean? It’s been argued thousands of thousands of times; “What is the true meaning of home?” Spoken like a true intellectual, I know. However, it’s a valid question! I think we’re all still figuring it out.

Home for a college student can mean their dorm, their apartment, a local coffee shop, their workplace, a friends apartment. It’s funny how much the meaning of home changes once you enter college, and once you really lose that stability that you had so often in the earlier stages of your life. They start saying “I’m going home!” and the response is “Which one?” Human’s aren’t stagnant, and I think we can all learn from college students who ship themselves around like a package, just kind of finding places to inhabit.

Being in a different country, I’m not sure I have a home. Sure, the host family I live with has given me a room, a bed, a bathroom. All essential aspects of home, right? Well, physically yes. But I could also argue that I’ve felt more at home sleeping in the middle of the forest with a kitchen built on the back of a truck, and the bathroom being the clearing behind that.

So home is a feeling then. Absolutely and undoubtable a feeling, and one that you’re not skeptical about. I don’t think home is a house, or “the place where one lives permanently, especially as the member of a family.” It’s the first thing you think of when someone says the word, or asks you that million dollar question: “If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be?”

As I mentioned, humans are not stagnant. Even those picture perfect families with their craftsman houses and garden of the month dream of their individual “homes” that they would like to escape to for a while. So is it possible that home is a feeling, and an escape? When I think of escaping, I imagine curling up in my twin bed with my cat, or riding in the passenger seat with my significant other, or drinking tea with my sister on the back porch. And along with an escape, these places are home, too.

Home is a feeling. Home is an escape. Home can be anywhere. Home can last for a second or for a decade. The list can go on and on in regards to the multiple perspectives of "home." But here's an important thing to remember: try and find a home for yourself before it's too late. I understand that to some people, moving around and creating a life based on adventure and avoiding the evils of stagnancy is the dream. But imagine yourself as an old person, all wrinkled from life experiences, just yearning for a nice rocking chair overlooking some beautiful landscape. Old self will thank you later for having a plan B to settle down at.

You know, Home Is Awesome. Let's realize that and start becoming okay with settling, even if for a second.