Home is Where the Heart is

Living somewhere is more than just buying a house or an apartment and moving all of your stuff in. It’s about having a place that is truly your own and somewhere you can feel comfortable and ultimately call your home. Creating a home seems a daunting task. I moved from my childhood home just this past summer and it was one of the hardest things I have done. After spending nearly 18 years of your life in the same place, I think it’s a little reasonable for me to have gotten so attached. I couldn’t imagine moving. I did not want to leave this house with my childhood bedroom, with the purple plum tree out front, with the marks on the wall showing how much my sisters and I had grown. We were literally picking up our stuff and transplanting it a mile down the road, but it didn’t matter, we were leaving my home…our home… I told my mom again and again that this new house would be awful and we would all regret this decision. It would feel the same at all and we wouldn’t be able to make this new place our home.

Boy was I wrong….

After the move, everything was different. We had a bigger house and different furniture, more trees in the yard and a better yard for our four-pound doggy to run around and “chase” squirrels. It was different, but somehow it still felt like home. It was this experience that really told me that it isn’t the place that makes the home, but the people and really the overall energy put into the space that makes the home. I realized that it didn’t matter where I was, I was still the same and I would still fill this space with the same energy and emotion that I did in my old home. This is something I encourage everyone to take into consideration when moving into their first house or apartment after college. It is going to be a big and even scary change. We may think that these four years in the dorms has prepared us for this but it hasn’t really. Nothing can. But remember that while it won’t be the same as the home you’ve always known, you will have no trouble in making it your new home.

Keep your energy up!! If you’re excited about moving it will show! Like I said, the overall energy is what really makes the home. When thinking about decorating, hosting parties, having friends over, or even just relaxing after a long day, remember that it isn’t the house or apartment that is going to give you that wonderful sense of belonging, it’s you. When decorating it is important to have emotion and to be enthusiastic. If you aren’t interested or are feeling blue about it, it will show in your choices and then you will always feel that way in what is supposed to be your home. So I will stress one last time, home is not where the old house with the plum tree out front is, but home is where the heart is. ❤

🙂 Kaelyn