Home is defined by Google as "a place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or a household." Although, when I think of home, I think of a feeling just as much as I think of a place.
After coming to college, I stumbled upon a new corner of the world. I made new friends and found a new sense of belonging. I moved my stuff, well, some of my stuff out of my parents' house and started paying rent for an apartment. When I go back to my hometown, I say I'm going home, and when I go back to college, I say I'm going home. This is because I have two homes, two places where I feel I belong, two places that contain people I love, and two places that feel homey. I don't permanently reside in either of these places, but they are both homes to me.
I never previously considered what it would be like to have more than one home. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's really hard. There's always a part of me that misses my other home and the people there. I can't be in more than one place at a time. That's the beauty of it; one place will always have something the other doesn't.
It's also amazing because I am lucky enough to love people in multiple places. My hometown is nothing like my college town, but I love them equally as much. Home is where the heart is, and my heart is in more than one place. A home is so much more than a roof and walls.
Your college friends, the people who see you every day, the people that are there for you through thick and thin become your family. The word "home" slowly becomes complicated, but as we grow older, as we find multiple homes and love people in various places, it will only become more complicated.
While it isn't always easy, I feel very thankful to call more than one place home. If you are lucky enough to love people in multiple places and call more than one place home, I hope you will cherish all of your homes and the people that inhabit them.
