Home Away From Home Away From Home

Hello, New Year.

I just got home to Minneapolis from my other home in Berkeley, where I stopped after spending time at home in my original hometown. I thought about other Christmases I had spent in Bologna, Cork, the Bay Area, and once in Portland. Luckily I didn't have to be weighed down by the memories of all the Christmases I spent where I was this year, at home home, because I was there, creating another iteration of that version of Christmas with my little family and our little stockings by our little fire.

Funny how a love of travel and a willingness to transplant myself often gives me multiple homes and constantly pulls the rug out from under me, leaving me feeling ungrounded and sometimes lost in an existential sense. Where is my home? Or often the more useful question: who is my home? Will I ever find a place I can't feel at home in? Does everyone have this experience after staying in a place for a long time?

I'm just getting my bearings here in the Cities in terms of friends, community, support, knowledge of the area, opportunities. But does this mean I'm letting go of some other home(s) that are dear to me? I don't think so. Seeing so many people (thank you all for your time and love) from my hometown, from my college experience, from my family reminded me that it's possible (or at least it was this time, again) to pick things up where they were left off, in spite of time passed and distance traveled. I hope that this is a pattern - that other relationships I don't actively maintain with people I've met abroad and afar are not necessarily over either.

It's 8:07 in California and 10:07 here. Luckily, I'm dog tired and am going promptly to bed with my new book, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara by Ben Fountain. To all a good year!