Home is no longer "where," but "who."

I wrote recently about the changes the have befallen me of late. Changes in how I socialize, and how I move along through my life. I've discovered another one, and it's the idea of "home."

Freshman year, I spent a great deal of my time secluded to my dorm room, avoiding most every soul that could have potentially called me "friend." I would text my girlfriend of the time, and I would watch cable on my 32" Zenith that was older than I was at the time. During this time "home" was my parents' house. I had not yet given a chance to college, and I had not yet found my new family members.

Sophomore year is when I knew River Falls as home. My parents' house was just that - my parents' house. It was nice to visit, but I was always just passing through, even on the stints that lasted months. I had friends in the nearby Falls to stay with, and I had a couple long stays in Japan, which was also home for a little while.

I am now graduated, my lease is up in three weeks, there is no space in my parents' house for me, and I officially have nowhere to go. I have no home to speak of; at least not in the capacity of a citadel wherein I find refuge from the torrent of the workweek and the weather. I'm now going to define home, not as a place, but as something wherein comfort is found. I'm now going to define home as a body of people. Those, with whom, I find it easy to breathe, and for whom I return that feeling of peace and safety.

Am I on the verge of being a nomad? You bet your ass. Am I on the verge of being without a home? Absolutely not.