Where is Home?

As graduation approaches, my introspective nature has kicked into overdrive. What do you want to do with your life? What career do you want to go into? Where am I going to live? But out of all of these questions that race through my mind, the most important questions are the ones about home: Where do I want to make myself a home? Where do I feel at home?

I'm originally from Belmont, Massachusetts, and when I think about going back, I always think about it as "coming home" or "visiting home." However, occasionally I slip up and refer to my apartment in West Hollywood, while I'm living at school as "home."But I just don't see myself staying here in L.A. after graduation, for financial reasons in particular, but especially because I didn't put a lot of time into putting down roots—whether they be platonic or romantic. So if L.A. isn't going to be my home, what next?

I want to go to D.C. to explore the world of political media—perhaps get an internship at CNN or MSNBC. But a job isn't key to making a place a home, just like going to school somewhere doesn't make a place a home either.

With all of this distance separating my life in L.A. and my life in Boston, I recognize the traditional aspects of family that I miss—and probably would never have missed had I not moved across the country for college. For away from Massachusetts, I've grown to love and appreciate the uniqueness of people who live in Boston. I adore the previously irritating quirks of my parents.

So as I muse about my future and where I want to live, something always draws me back to Boston. It's a great place for my liberal politics. I have roots there. I have a supportive family there. But is it where I want to settle down? Yes, Boston is where I feel "safe," but if I put the social effort into creating a supportive atmosphere elsewhere (perhaps a little closer to my family), who's to say that a new place can't be my "home?"


-Mikayla Galvin