What is home in the life of a roaming college student? Is it where we physically live? This semester or next? Where you were born, or where you go to school? And if in school, which dorm or apartment?

Being lucky enough to be able to go to school across the country and across the world leave few words to describe how great life can be. These experiences have heightened my awareness of the meaning of “home." The dictionary definition of the word home, "the place where one lives permanently," has to be redefined once a student starts college. The place where our heads hit the pillow at night is often what I now call home.

However, not every place I lived felt like home. For example, studying abroad in Paris for four months during my first semester of freshman year was an amazing experience that I will treasure forever, but it was an unexpected journey that I found difficult at times. I loved living in Paris, but I found myself wanting to go "home." If living somewhere for four months doesn't make a "home," then what does?

Being ‘home’ in New York where I grew up after living in Paris made me happy. I felt content and at peace with the familiarity around me. I then left to go to school in California where my feelings were completely different. Not once during my spring semester at USC did I find myself wanting to go "home." I felt that I was "home" right away.

Home is not always where you sleep at night, or an easy definition. If you live somewhere for more than a month, that place doesn't automatically become your home. Home is more of a feeling than anything else.

Home is a place you feel safe, loved, and content. The unfamiliar scenery of USC slowly became familiar for me, and I felt content like I did when I was in New York. When college students are moving into their new "home," there are people that often help to make the transition smoother; these people can be orientation advisers and residential advisers, but more than anyone else, students make their friends.

Living in a new place can be difficult if you do not have friends that feel like family. I have been blessed with amazing new friends and the constant support of lifelong friends to get me through my transitions.

The support and care from these amazing people are what helps make college and all of the different physical locations seem like a home. Just like you have the love and support of your family in your hometown, you have the love and support from friends in college.

While the word "home" may have a technical definition in the dictionary, I believe it is a feeling. Home is a place where we feel supported and cared about. This means that as a college student, we now get to have more than one home - how lucky is that!