Where is Home?

By Jessica Lococo

There are lots of little saying about home. "Home is where your hat hangs." "Home is wherever you can find a place to lay your head" and "Home is where your heart is." I've always liked this last one best. I'm currently studying abroad in Ireland, so homesickness is something I have been dealing with. In the very beginning of my stay here I felt homesick a lot. It took me about a month to really adjust, actually, and I think it was because I had sort of a traumatic experience making my way from the plane to my apartment here. I am traveling all alone, and didn't know anyone from home, so when my plans didn't go the way they were supposed to, I was on my own to figure it out. Everything ended up okay, but it threw me right out of the "honeymoon period" we're supposed to have for the first few weeks of being here, and straight into culture shock.

When I arrived in Ireland, I was homesick for more than one place. Home is Milwaukee, Wisconsin because that is where my parents and sister live. Home is also De Pere, Wisconsin, at my college, with all of my friends. After about a month of missing all of the things I loved about my homes, including people I know so well, my college's style of teaching, knowing which direction cars are coming from, and lower prices, I let go of all of that.

My homesickness went away when I went on a trip that introduced me to a whole group of friends that I spend most of my time with now. They are from all over Europe, and everyone has so much to learn from each other. They are all open-minded and positive and adventurous and looking for the same things I'm looking for. That's what I think the key to everything is for me—people. The people I have met here make me feel at home.

So I have decided that for me home is wherever you are genuinely comfortable with a community of people you care about and who care about you. This may be your family, or your classmates, or your friends, or strangers you have been thrown together with somewhere in the world. This also means that home can be anywhere. That is a pretty comforting thought. And maybe, when I leave (or even before that), I will come to call Ireland home too.