Home

They say home is where the heart is, and I have to agree with whoever actually first said this. I believe I first learned it from an episode of the TV show Madeline. She and her boarding school friends all sang a catchy tune about it, and since then I have firmly believed this.

Home for me is a little different now, though. After 20 years, there are quite a few places where my heart lies.

My actual home of course, with my family, has always been my first home. Where I learned to cook, share, argue, dream, make messes, and most of all, love, was at home with my mom and dad. Saturday morning pancakes, a long-standing tradition, made the first day of a weekend at home, the best, even when I was still actually living at home. The memories I have of home, will always be some of my favorites, and will certainly be the stories I pass on to my children some day, and hope for them to do the same, because there's never really anything to cheer you up, like coming home.

My second home, is a place where laughter is common, lack of sleep happens more often than it should, and doing homework consists of attempting to do a problem, realizing you have no idea what you're doing, and walking next door to see the people going through the same thing you are. Dayton, to me, is home. My heart will always believe that friends don't let friends go to Xavier, and that the best thing about college is community. The blue dome of the chapel reminds me that I am where I should be, whenever I see it. My friends who challenge me not only academically, but spiritually, are where my heart lies at Dayton. My friends who welcome me  back with open arms and allow me to sleep on their couches and futons when I visit from co-op, are the reason why UD is my home, and why my heart will be there while I am away.

The last place I consider home, is a place I visit when I can while I am at school. It is a place where I have opened my self up to others, and bared my soul for them to see, while listening as others do the same. It is a place where relationships are mended, where new friendships are born, and where I am constantly reminded that my life is full of love. Bergamo has been that place for me for the last few years. Whether I'm just stopping in to say hello, or I'm leading others in a retreat I, myself participated in not that long ago, it is a place that has accepted me where ever I have been along my journey of life and faith, and encouraged me to share in experiences with others. My heart lies there because of the friendships I have made, the people who I have seen change in the course of 24 hours, and because of the quiet calm I feel when I step into the chapel where I have witnessed so many incredible things. 

It is finding a home in this new place, that I am having trouble with. There is nothing here for me to be so passionate about, or care so much about, for me to consider it home. I have learned a lot in my time here so far, made a few new friends and like my job, but it is the pull to be where there are people who love me, the pull of my heart wanting to be where it belongs, that brings me back to my many homes whenever I can.