The Place I Call Home

I was thinking back to an essay we read in class this week. It was called Homeless by Anna Quindlin and I feel that I can relate to the essay a lot.

In the essay, she mentions that people don't have homes anymore because they move so much. I know exactly what that is like. I have lived in 8 houses in 4 states and I have never gone to a single school for every grade that it teaches. As I've mentioned, I hope to be famous for my musical ability someday, so naturally I look to all those who have already made it for an example. In every biography and interview the first question is always what is your home town and that is a problematic question for me.

Most of the famous people lived in the town they were born in for years and then left to become famous. I was born in Cherokee, IA. However, I spent a matter of months there before my family moved. My dad kept having to move for his job so I didn't live anywhere for more than a few months after the first four moves. Those place were houses not homes. I could say Olathe, KS. It was the longest I have ever spent in one house, six years. But does time make a place feel more like home? I had friends there, my first girlfriend, the move to junior high from elementary school, and some of my favorite teachers ever. But it all runs together and I don't keep in contact with anyone from my life there anymore. I will always remember Kansas but it wasn't my home.

That leaves one place: Cedar Rapids, IA. I lived here for three years prior to the move to Kansas and now I have lived here for almost three more years. This place has so many memories for me. This is where I am attending high school, where I got my drivers license, where I got my own cello. Where my parents grew up and will die. Where I found my true love of music. And, where I found true friends that will last forever. Those are the things that truly make a home. Not the house or the amount of time you spend there but the memories that last forever. So no matter where I may go from now on I know that I have found the place that I can always come back to. For the first time I have a place I could say is my home town.