I know it sounds cliche, but home isn’t a place on a map that you head to on the holidays. Home isn’t a house or even the town you grew up in. Home is home because of the people, the memories, the friendships made and lost, and the journey we ventured.
This is something I never had to learn in my childhood because I spent most of my life in the same house, in the same town, with the same people. It wasn't until my parents moved out of what I came to know as my childhood home my freshman year of college. It was heartbreaking to say goodbye but I had known it was coming for a few years in advance. That being said, it doesn't make it any easier.
The 2016 year came with a lot of change. Change is scary but it's good. My sister graduated high school and her and my mom took off to California, my dad moved in with a friend, I went gluten free, two of my cousins had babies and my brother got engaged. 2016 was a monumental year. I celebrated finishing my first year of college but also remembering we made it a year with Grandpa up in the sky. I left my teen years to enter my 20’s and we celebrated Christmas for the first time in another home that wasn’t ours. I found Christ again in a relationship I thought was lost. I left some friendships behind but I also grew and depends some others. It was full of life, full of change, but also full of new.
Then 2017 came and took me on an adventure. If you read my 2017 reflection you would already know but to recap, it was probably the highest of the highest year of my life but also the lowest of the lows. My best friend came to visit me at school and I traveled all over the US. I found joy in the small things again and found a pleasure in being alone which I never had had before. My brother eloped and one of my cousins got married in a beautiful wedding out in Cali. My parents moved back in together in Lexington in an apartment and Grandma Tibbie was/is healthy. I mentored a group of freshmen through their first semester of college. I turned 21 with my cousins beside me and experienced Christmas morning for the first time without my brother. It truly was an unforgettable year.
Now, 2018 is in full swing and there is more change coming. My parents closed on a house this week and are moving for good (I hope) next month. I am happy to say, I have many homes. I have homes in Lexington at my grandma’s, my aunts & uncles, my cousin’s in Louisville, my best friend Haley's home, and so many more. I have a home at Berry and homes in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and everywhere in between with the people I’ve met. I have homes in California and South Carolina, Illinois and Minnesota too with family. And most recently, I have my new home with my parents in Bradenton, Florida where they are moving. This time will be a little more permanent.
Home is wherever I’m with you Mom & Dad (& Grandma sue - you’re pretty cool too). I love you and I can’t wait to come home.
-- Lex --