In a previous article that I wrote on another platform, I said that I realized "home" wasn't my home anymore. I thought that I could only have one home at a time and I thought that my home had moved from where I grew up to where I'm currently living. I thought that my old life and my new one couldn't co-exist and that once I found a new home it meant my old one wouldn't be my "home" but instead just a memory of one. But now, seven months later, I'm realizing that I couldn't have been more wrong.
For a while I thought that home was a place, but in reality it's also a feeling and it can also be a person. Home is the place where you feel comfortable and safe, but home is also where you have your life and great memories. Home is where you go to sleep at the end of the night, but home is also where you want to be sleeping. There isn't one perfect way to describe exactly what "home" is because to everyone it can be different, but you always know that it's yours.
The first place that I ever called home is where I grew up. I lived there for my entire life and it's where I took my first steps, said my first word, made my first friend, and even had my first kiss. My first home is where most of my friends and family live and it's a place that I often return to. My first home is the place that, no matter how far away I move or what length of time I'm away, I will always call home.
The second place that I ever called home is where I am now. It's where I go to college and discovered a new side of myself; it's where I first learned what it's like to live away from my parents; it's where I got a fresh start and no one knew who I was; and it's where I realized there was more to the world than just the place that I grew up. My second home is a place that started a new chapter of my life and will always hold a special place in my heart.
When I first started realizing that I found a new place to call home, I thought that it meant my old home wasn't actually my home anymore. I thought that my first home felt "like my childhood, not my future." At times I may still feel like my first home doesn't hold much of a future for me, but I didn't realize that I could have the best of both worlds. I didn't realize that it's perfectly okay to call more than one place home.
Some people aren't fortunate enough to have one place to call home, yet I'm lucky enough to have two. Both of my homes hold different memories for me and I call them home for different reasons, but I couldn't imagine my life with only one and not the other.
