What Makes Certain Places Feel Like Home?

I’m counting down my final week in Marshall. It’s really starting to hit me that I’m actually moving away. All of my possessions are packed and I’ve gotten my address changed over and everything else but it just didn’t feel real quite yet. At this time next week I’m going to be spending my first night in my new home.

It’s making me realize that Marshall has actually become a pretty big part of my life. I’ve been here for over 6 years now. That’s a really long time. I came here for college and I didn’t really expect it to be anything else.

I’ve made and lost a lot of friends here. I’ve discovered that friendships are sort of fluid and it’s easy to drop out of people’s lives.

There’s a lot of good memories in my apartment. Sure, it’s cramped, underground, and poorly lit but it was partly mine. It took a while to feel that way though. Chris lived here first and Josh moved in with him. Then Jess and I moved in and Chris moved out. Then Chris moved back in and Jess moved out. It’s all very complicated but it’s been one of the best living situations I’ve been in ever. I’m glad Chris agreed to come to Duluth with us.

Duluth is going to be the beginning of a new era. I’m an adult with a college degree. I’m not a “student” anymore. I’m ready for that next step. I’m sick of people asking me when I’m going to be done with school. It’s really awkward to tell them I graduated a year ago. Then they want to know what my degree was and what I plan on doing with it. My degree is creative writing and I plan on using it to work at Walmart for the foreseeable future.

I don’t think it will take long to make Duluth feel like home. I feel like I’m familiar with the area already from all of the searching I’ve been doing with Google Earth. I haven’t been there since I was eight.

It will be nice that we’re all moving into this house at the same time. It will be everyone’s equally. It’s not like we’re moving in with someone already living there. I’ll be able to get things the way I want them. I don’t think the boys will care as long as they can easily play their video games and we all have the ability to have alone time.

So I’m not really sure what makes a place feel like home. I think it’s being comfortable with the place you live and the people you live with. I’m comfortable with Josh and Chris. It should be the same way when we move in with Jim.