People have said that you can never go home again. As if once you leave the place that raised you, it turns its back on all of your future endeavors. Now that I’ve had my fair share of going home again, I’ve realized that the door never closes. It might look a little bit smaller than when you first left, but the locks never change.
Somewhere along the line, it became so important to get away from where we grew up. No matter if it was a small town or big city; eventually, the confines of “home” became suffocating instead of comforting. We breathed a sigh of relief with diplomas clenched between our fingers and spent an entire summer saying goodbye.
I kept thinking that it wasn’t the ability to go home again that was taken away from you once you left, but the ability to be the person you were before you left. Was there really any difference? I left home with the supposed realization that when I returned, it wouldn’t be the same. Imagine my surprise when, for the most part, it was.
You can go home again because home is the only place that unconditionally accepts you—regardless of how many times you pushed against it. There is nothing that makes more sense than a lazy morning spent on the same couch you’ve sat on since you were seven, or a cup of coffee in your favorite mug that has a chip on the left side. Home is history, your history; it speaks of the stories you tell when you find yourself in some place new. It has seen you all skinned up knees and runny noses and it welcomes you back half an inch taller with shorter hair without asking questions.
It’s the only place you can go where you know without a doubt the water pressure in the shower or how long to leave your bread in the toaster without burning it. It is the only place you can eat burnt toast and feel okay about it. The only place you’d ever feel safe driving home with one headlight burnt out.
I wish there was a word for the feeling of being almost home, a word for the comforting lull of a highway when your exit sign is just coming into view. But I know you all know the exact feeling I'm talking about.
