Where is Home?
The problem with moving around so much is that you start to have a lot of homes. Or possibly none at all. Sitting here in my apartment in Doha, I think that this place certainly doesn't feel like home. After all my longing for some permanence last year while I was in Syria, here I am in permanent limbo in Doha. I'm working for a network that isn't yet on air and I know I don't like this city, so there's nothing permanent about this situation.Today while driving home I started to think that, despite my thoughts that Pittsburgh, Chicago, London, Damascus, and most parts of Germany feel like home, maybe my home isn't actually a place. Maybe my home is wherever my friends are. Seeing my friend Avi in Jakarta felt like being at home. Maybe the reason I feel so at home in Chicago isn't necessarily because I've lived there but because I have such good friends there and I always feel so comfortable with them. Maybe the reason why I feel so at home in San Francisco, even though I've never lived there, is because my brother is there and seeing him feels like home.
I sometimes think that living in Doha will never feel like home, but maybe it will, if I find really good friends here. Maybe one day I'll look back and think that Doha felt like home, if only for a little while, because of people here.
posted by Travel Chick @ 4:49 PM
2 Comments:
"My home is not a place, it is people."
Lois McMaster Bujold
Some line in a movie (not word for word): "Home is just a place a couple of people miss when they're not actually there."
For me, home is a mixture of memories and people...I've been moving around way too much to have one place where the "traditional" definition fits.
Sometime people like us need a flexible definition, or else, we turn into drifters.
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