Home Sweet Home

I just started a new online class with Shimelle, called No Place Like Home... how appropriate given my Kansas connection (and the fact that I still have the Dorothy costume I slaved over for weeks in my closet!). The class is for five weeks and each week we get five messages in our inbox. Some messages give us journaling prompts, some are some projects and layouts, and some are bigger projects or minibooks. Everything about Home, of course.

This "home" thing always gets me.

Growing up Texas was home... but I don't remember living there myself. It is where Mom and Dad's home was and where all the family was. All my childhood memories are of Newport News and Hampton. In fact, one of my first really distinct memories was when we had just moved to NN's and the furniture wasn't there yet. I got to eat my cereal using a cardboard box as a table. I thought that was SO cool! I was like 3ish... so using boxes for furniture WAS cool for me. :)

When I went to college, I'd be walking across campus and run into friends or co-workers, and they'd ask where I was going. I'd say home and they looked surprised... but I was just going to the dorm. And while I was there, the dorm or apartment, or whatever WAS home. My stuff was there, my pictures were there, my dog... it counted. I love to visit Mom and Dad, but Kansas, as much as I like it there, isn't really home.

When Sergio and I started dating, it got easier. I'd be at a party with him and some of his friends and their friends ... and they'd ask the question, "So, where are you from?" With them, I could just say that I'm from here... I'm American. That was enough.

Now, home isn't so much the place, it's the who... if Sergio and A~ are there, it counts as home. Now I'm still not sure where I'm from... that may always be Texas... but I know where home is.

much love,

erin