Home for the Holidays

Being a twenty-something, the word "home" has come to mean something beyond where my parents raised my brother and I. From an early age, having moved several times, I realized that home wasn't a physical location (ok, well not entirely a physical location) - it was where my family was. Where I felt the most loved, and the place where I could most be myself.

Even in college, the word "home" started to evolve as I found my place at school, and in my fabulous sorority. Now I had two families - my Zeta family, and my real family. But wait, then came the amazingly close friendships I formed with several people during my time at MU - so close, that I began to consider them a part of my family. Slowly home evolved into the groups with which I felt truly in my element, as I did with my own family.

Now that I'm out in the real world, I don't go home every day to my parents, or to the same friends from high school and college that I still identify as parts of who I am - I come home to PG and our little one-bedroom apartment. Now that's home. We have a couch that we hate, cooking skills that seriously need improving, and a mound of things to sort through and find places for... and it is absolutely perfect.

Pondering this idea of "home" earlier (as I watch the white death creep into PA), I realized that having multiple homes shouldn't be confusing, rather, it's a blessing. I'm lucky enough to have places and people across the country that I can go home too. Whether it is my apartment in the Pitts, my parent's house in Kansas, or with friends in a variety of locations, I am never far from home.

A few of the many "homes" that will be on my mind this Holiday Season - set to the tune of "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Home,

Let me come home.

Home is...

...wherever I'm...

...with you.

Oh, home.

So even though I can't celebrate the Holidays in all these wonderful corners of the country, they will all be on my mind during this special time of year.

Oh, and I'll be planning lots of visits for 2013!

SJ