This thanksgiving, things have been a little different. My parents moved 500 miles away from where I grew up. As I come home from college to this newness, I don't know anyone in this town. The house is still being unpacked and cleaned." My room" has been turned into the guest room, and the house isn't even unpacked yet.

They say home is where the heart is but when you feel your heart is in 2 different states, it's hard to figure out where "home" is. Since I've been in college, I feel I am a completely different person than I was growing up. Home meant Whataburger, friends I grew up with, and seeing familiar faces everywhere I went. Now, home means a small apartment in colorado, with some of the most amazing people I've ever met. But "Going Home" means going to a town I dont know wnyine but my family in, not knowing where anything is, and a completly new house. Familiarity seems to only be a distant memory.

This new home is in a beautiful area in Arkansas, but it just doesn't feel like "home".
I'm not coming home to my friends or even familiar faces, other than my parents. But it served as a reminder to cherish the time you have left with your family. It made me realize that home is not where a roof over your head is, but where you're loved ones are and the memories you make are. A home is not defined by a physical thing, but the love that's around.

I'm thankful to have spent the holiday's surrounded by my family, becuase thats where home really is.

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.