I have heard the saying many of times and have seen it even more on nicely decorated plaques and stitched hand towels; "home is where the heart is." Meanwhile, the other fan favorite, "home is a feeling, not a place," often makes an appearance in college student's opinionated blog posts much like this one. However, no matter how cheesy or cliché I believe these quotes to be, I would be lying if I said they never cross my mind as I journey home to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a holiday or summer.

After two years of back and forth from Pittsburgh to DC, Rome, and Costa Rica, I have realized that this place I call home is no longer my home anymore.

Yes, it still looks the same and smells the same, but it no longer serves the same meaning to me as it did three years ago during my senior year of high school. It no longer has the same feeling of comfort that it did just two summers ago as I prepared to leave for college.

As I soon learned, college is weird in many aspects, but especially because it will start to feel like home before you know it. Some days my mom will call me as I am walking back from class to see what I am up to, without thought I always respond, "just walking home," home referring to my dorm room. other days, as I lie sick in bed in that same dorm room, I wish for nothing more than to be home in Pittsburgh. It is in these moments that I realize neither of the places I call home are actually my home anymore.

The concept of home that every one loves to define is something I have always struggled to define for myself. Perhaps it is because every time I get relatively close to defining home something changes or someone leaves.

For example, the first 16 years of my life, I grew up in the same neighborhood in the same house. When I was finally old enough to understand "home" and give it a definition, we moved. This is when I learned that home is not a place with rooms and furniture, it is the people who surround you.

So at the age of 17, I built a home out of the people in my life. Family, friends, teammates, crushes, anyone who made me laugh. These people where the building blocks to my new makeshift home. This is when I learned that home can be temporary and as I walk around that home today it is no longer being held up by those same people. In fact they are simply the dust that lingers.

So I left, far enough away to leave all the people who had left me behind. To find a new home, otherwise known as college. This is when I learned the strongest lesson about the definition of home; home is what is inside of you. It is something you carry around everywhere you go. It is the family who never gave up on you and the memories of those who did. It is the walls you built up and the ones you tore down. It is the new people you meet and the old ones you still keep in touch with.

So yes, home is very much a feeling, but it is also a concept. A concept that many people, like myself try too hard to define.

I guess what I am trying to say is look a little less.

Home is not supposed to be permanent. If it were, we would never have the opportunity to grow. Instead, home is something that changes with you.

So next time you go searching for it, take a closer look at yourself, it might surprise you.