If you were to type in the word "home" into google it will ask you to put in an address. But who said home has to be a place, or just one place. When people ask me where my home is, I often find this a hard question to answer.

I have had the opportunity to learn at a very young age that home is more then walls and a roof and it can have more then one meaning. The cliché saying of "home is where your heart is" could not be truer. As I get older, I seem to find myself finding more places that I call home. As a college student that moved away from one of my homes I found my first month of college challenging. Wondering how I was supposed to call college my new home, when I was so alone. This was NOT a home. But by the second semester of my freshman year I could confidently say that Boca finally felt like a home to me (although my mom hates that).

A home is a place where you feel happy and loved. And between being surrounded by my amazing sorority sisters and going to school to pursue a career I am so passionate about, I was able to confidently say that this had because my new home. But my family is also my home, they are my forever home. Whether it be Orlando or West Virginia, they are both a home to me. My heart is in both places, because my family is in both places. So my home has become both places. Home is so much more then a house. Home is where you feel loved, home to me is my family no matter where we are, just along as we are together, we are all at home.

My mom often tells me "home is where your mom is" and that is also true. Whenever I am with her no matter where it may be, I have the sense of comfort and love. And the more that you open your heart to allowing others and other places in, the more lucky you are to have the opportunity to call more then one place a home.

I think home can be with friends too. My best friend since I was in 6th grade is a home to me. She’s my safety net. My comfort zone. A home can be a place where you can be yourself, where you are loved unconditionally for who you are by the ones you love. And whenever her and I are together I feel at home. A home could also be a place that you have spent a lot of time, somewhere that you have fond memories. For me there is a lake up in New Hampshire where I attended summer camp as a child and then as a counselor. There you will find the most breathtaking sunsets and the most humble and caring people. This is yet another place I am lucky enough to call home. A home can be a number of things. Orlando is just one of the many places that I get to call home.

Bottom line is, home can be a number of places where you leave your heart. I guarentte you if you ask anyone that has had the opportunity to open their hearts to new places and new people you will find that they have left a little piece of their heart in many places and with many people that they can call their home.