There's No Place Like Home

Hey! I just wanted to say that I am sorry this didn't go up last week! I wondered why no one commented on it.  I accidentally pressed "Save" instead of "Publish."  Whoops!

Photo from: jezebel.com

Everyone has heard this phrase.  It's the way that Dorothy got out of Oz and back to Aunty Em's.  "There's no place like home."  Lately, I have thought about this phrase.  Where is home?  Why is there no place like it.  And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the quote is quite true, for many reasons.

For starters, every place that I have been to has been different from my town.  The weather may be different.  The people may be similar, but not exactly the same.  New places, different scenes.  So from a demographic point of view, there is no physical place exactly like home. 

In addition to the set up of places, also, the connections you make with them separate them from home.  I can live in a million other places, but they will never share the same experiences as when I am at "home."  My room in State College does not hold as much value to me as the room at my parent's house; the room I have slept in, cried in, hid in, worked in, done EVERYTHING in for the past 16 years of my life.  No other room can replace it.  No other town can stand up to Lilly, where every building, street, and person holds a memory for me.  There is no place quite like it.

"Home" isn't just a physical place though.  Home is a feeling.  I feel at home when I am in front of a campfire making a smore.  I feel at home at my house, curled up and watching a movie with my dad.  I feel at home when I am with my friends, just talking.  It's that sense of belonging, that sense of being where you are suppose to be.  And there is truly no better feeling than in that moment. 

In the end, Dorothy was really onto something when she said "There's no place like home."  No matter where you go or what you do, home is where your heart is.  Home is where you look back to.  And home is the feeling that you keep with you.