"home"

Over the past few years my definition of the word "home" has changed, morphed, and matured to a point now where it is much different than what it used to be.

In the days leading up to my departure for college my freshman year, I had a "mental breakdown" of sorts as I came to the realization that "home" as I had always known it was about to change. I was leaving the neighborhood, the street, the bedroom, the city, the people, the lifestyle, etc. that I had always known, loved, and felt safe in for a new city with a dorm room where my lifestyle and friends would surely be different from anything I had ever known. At that moment I thought that I would never really have a "home" again until the day some time down the road when I got married, had kids, bought a house, etc. I thought that I would never be able to consider a different place home (of course my Mom, being the loving and concerned parent she is and was, assured me that I always had a home, that being the house she lived in...thanks Mom)...and at that time in my life, as a not even college freshman, such notions were terrifying. However it did not take long for those fears and notions of "home" to be written off as ill-conceived.

As I am now living in my third place in as many years, I am comfortable with the idea that "home" does not have to be and is not the two-story, suburban house with a yard to rake and a basketball hoop that was normal of my childhood. I love the fact that my "home" in the last three years has been in three different rooms, in two different cities on two different continents, with different people, cultures and languages...it is simply a testament to where I am in my life.

So as I continue to live that life, my life, here in Oslo...I am happy to say that I have found a new "home". And while my time of residence here may be temporary, my experiences and feelings are true and lifelong....I am right at "home".