home.

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." -Maya Angelou

Home is a physical place where you reside, temporarily or permanently. It's a house, or an apartment; a physical structure that has walls and if you're lucky, maybe a fireplace. It's a place that you come back to at the end of a long day; where you kick off your shoes and lay your head. It's where your home team is, waiting for you when you arrive. Home is where your dog is, where your mom is and where your "people" are. Home is where a warm bed has your name written on it and where your favorite coffee mugs reside. 

Home is a state of mind, too- It is where your heart is, somewhere that you can retreat to; where you can simply be still. Home is where you feel safe and loved and comfy cozy. It is where your childhood memories live and where nostalgia lingers. It is where you feel a sense of belonging that no one can take away from you. Home is where grace dwells and forgiveness is abundant; It is an emotional state that you yearn for when you aren't there. It is where your mind goes when you are weary. Home is where your heart wanders to when it's longing for something familiar. 

I believe that home is a perfect combination of a place and a state of mind. I think it looks a little different for everyone. Some people find home in the eyes of someone else, and some people find it at the street address where they have spent their whole life. I find it in a little bit of both, halfway between a place and a state of mind; the most wonderful combination that joins together to make my heart overflow. 

As I leave to go back to college this weekend after a month long winter break, I am reminded that I am lucky enough to call two places home. These two places balance the two ingredients of a place and a state of mind to make the best recipe that I've ever tasted- home. Two homes that both hold my favorite coffee mugs in the cabinets.

My two homes are different but seemingly the same, because they both give me that feeling- the one where you walk through the door after being away and smile because you are full, satisfied and content. I am leaving one home- my permanent home- where I found rest this month, where my family is and where my dog greets me with kisses every morning. I'm heading back to my other home- where my community lives beside me, where my two special roommates encourage me and where spring semester awaits me with the opportunity for a fresh beginning.

It's a bittersweet thing- leaving home. Its a necessary evil. I do believe that sometimes you have to leave home to realize what home truly means to you. But the special thing about home is that even when you leave it, it never really leaves you.

 “Everybody has a home team: It’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyways. These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house. These are the people who cry when you cry. These are your people, your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what people.”

-Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet