Home

[Me-Ike]

@ teacake

That is an interesting perspective.

I still don't think the internet would work for me as, I don't know, it combines too few senses? I think I need to feel my home, and while we're at it, smell and taste it, too. Of course you can drink a coffee while you chat with your friends just the same as drinking one when friends come to visit. But it misses this entire ceremony of setting the table and so on.

Of course, I am not trying to devalue your definition, just trying to gauge what makes it different for me.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I've lived in Maryland ever since college. I've thought of it as home almost from the beginning.

 

[mimic]

I mostly still consider my home to be my parents house, even though I am there maybe three weeks a year. I love that I can go back after months of being away and the dogs just go bonkers the second I walk in the door. When I'm there, I feel like I never left.

I wouldn't consider where I currently live a home. It's not going to be my permanent residence. I had about a week in which to find housing for my job, so it was the best I could do on short notice. I'm waiting until I save up a bit more and until I know exactly where I want to live before I seriously look for a place to buy.

 

[Sky]

So was it for you more about the people than the place? Do you think you can have a home abroad?

I think it's both. If I end up surrounded by people I love, in a house/apartment I love, in a city I love - then I'm home. I really really liked the town and apartment I lived in for 6 years recently but I never felt at home because I did not like the people and had a hard time with the language .. those things take time. On the other hand I've also lived surrounded by my family in an apartment I didn't really like and then I did not feel at home.

 

[Me-Ike]

^ Well, I hope for you to find a place which combines all three things.

I love that I can go back after months of being away and the dogs just go bonkers the second I walk in the door.

Yes! Dogs! They can add a big part to how much you feel at home.

 

[Timby]

Dubuque, Iowa. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and lived there until I was 18, but I got my degrees in Dubuque, I met my wife while living in Dubuque, I founded -- then sold -- my first business in Dubuque, I met my closest friend in the world (who started as a business partner from the acquisition of my sole proprietorship, but then became a rock in my life) while living there, and I had the absolute darkest times in my life while living there.

I live in Madison, now, which works out pretty well as a home for my wife and myself, since she's from here and the rest of her family lives here. I'm sober and happy, here. But I never pass up an opportunity to go back home to the Masterpiece on the Mississippi.

 

[RandyS]

I still live in the house in California where my brother and I were raised by our mom and grandparents (mom's parents). My mom and grandparents have all been dead for years, and my brother lives across town now. I live here with my girlfriend now. I'm a lucky guy. Before that, I lived here alone for awhile.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I feel much the same way as you Me-Ike. Although I have not lived at my parents house for many years now, I have not yet found my own permanent home elsewhere. However, I don't really feel like their house is my home either, probably because we moved a few times when I was a child and I lived in the house they are at now for only four years. And actually, I continued going to my previous high school in the next town over, so the city they live in now really never felt like home to me. I suppose that other town we lived in before is most like home, though so much has changed there that the concept in my mind doesn't really exist anymore.

As for a new home for myself, like you I feel as if I am still in a transitional phase. The place I am living now is certainly not where I would want to spend the rest of my life, not because I hate it, but because I just feel like I don't really belong here and am just "passing through" before I reach my final destination. When my boyfriend of six years whom I live with finishes his PhD in a couple of years, we will be free to move anywhere we'd like. I really don't have any idea where we'll go, but it will probably be somewhere in California, as I consider the whole state itself as a home to me.

 

[Lumi]

My home is actually my house that I live in now. I feel completely comfortable and at home here. Not a big fan of the neighbours, but hey...

There is no place like home, and this is the only place I truly feel at home.

 

[Holdfast]

Where I live now is home, on an emotional level.

I'm naturally very set in my ways, which means I hate moving. But funnily enough, when I do move, it doesn't take all that long before my new environment becomes home and then I don't want to move again. I've noticed it takes about 3-6 months before a place becomes second-nature to me and I feel totally settled there. I've lived in my current place for over 8 years, and in this city for a lot longer. So yeah, it's home.

I don't really think of the home I grew up in as my home anymore; haven't really felt like that about it for years. My dad still lives there, and I still visit there occasionally, but it's not my home anymore, it's his. I had a happy childhood, and many happy memories of it, so I still like visiting. But it's not my emotional home these days.

 

[Me-Ike]

Dubuque, Iowa. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and lived there until I was 18, but I got my degrees in Dubuque, I met my wife while living in Dubuque, I founded -- then sold -- my first business in Dubuque, I met my closest friend in the world (who started as a business partner from the acquisition of my sole proprietorship, but then became a rock in my life) while living there, and I had the absolute darkest times in my life while living there.

I like that your home is a place you only discovered later in life. Give's me hope that the transitional phase is, well, a phase!

When my boyfriend of six years whom I live with finishes his PhD in a couple of years, we will be free to move anywhere we'd like. I really don't have any idea where we'll go, but it will probably be somewhere in California, as I consider the whole state itself as a home to me.

That's cool. Then there are two of you from the get-go and settling in at the place of your choice will already be one step ahead.
Good luck to you!

But funnily enough, when I do move, it doesn't take all that long before my new environment becomes home and then I don't want to move again. I've noticed it takes about 3-6 months before a place becomes second-nature to me and I feel totally settled there. I've lived in my current place for over 8 years, and in this city for a lot longer. So yeah, it's home.

Lucky bastard!
But wait, is this only restricted to the city in which you have lived for so many years? Do you think you could move to, let's say, another part of the country (the north, to give it a little geographical distance) and still settle in as quickly?
Because then we might just be looking at heart transplantation here. I wouldn't even need this consent thingy.

 

[Holdfast]

But funnily enough, when I do move, it doesn't take all that long before my new environment becomes home and then I don't want to move again. I've noticed it takes about 3-6 months before a place becomes second-nature to me and I feel totally settled there. I've lived in my current place for over 8 years, and in this city for a lot longer. So yeah, it's home.

Lucky bastard!
But wait, is this only restricted to the city in which you have lived for so many years? Do you think you could move to, let's say, another part of the country (the north, to give it a little geographical distance) and still settle in as quickly?
Because then we might just be looking at heart transplantation here. I wouldn't even need this consent thingy.

That kind of proposal makes even my stodgy set-in-my-ways soul go all a-quiver with the imminent prospect of moving. But the sad truth is that my local area just has too many things I'm very fond of to move to a distant region. A dfferent house in the area, sure if I found a place I liked, but not another part of the country.

You'll have to move instead.

 

[Me-Ike]

^ Ah-haaaaa! So you're not as awesome as you think you are!
You "just" found your home quite readily and have (understandably) not moved since! None of that transitional horror others suffer heroically through.

No, thank you. Keep your heart! I'll weather this, do some Captain of my Soul Magic, and then ... probably still want to move to the UK and get back at you.

 

[scotpens]

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

Actually, although I’ve lived at the same address for almost 30 years, I consider all of Los Angeles my home. I was born and raised here, I know the geography, the streets, the swarm of 99 suburbs that passes for a city. Hell, I even enjoy the earthquakes.

 

[tomalak301]

I've lived in the Bay Area all my life and whenever I come home from a long vacation or long trip, it's good to be back. It's a beautiful part of the country and I really do enjoy the area.

 

[scotpens]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5PejW-9gvY[/yt]

 

[Kestra]

I've lived in the Bay Area all my life and whenever I come home from a long vacation or long trip, it's good to be back. It's a beautiful part of the country and I really do enjoy the area.

I miss Chicago but I do love it here in the Bay Area. It's really an amazing place to live.

 

[tomalak301]

I've lived in the Bay Area all my life and whenever I come home from a long vacation or long trip, it's good to be back. It's a beautiful part of the country and I really do enjoy the area.

I miss Chicago but I do love it here in the Bay Area. It's really an amazing place to live.

I don't miss the Chicago Traffic but the city is nice. Last time I was in Chicago, it seemed like the common theme was closing the road just for the sake of closing the road, and doing it at the worst possible times of the day. Not only that, but the workers didn't look like they were working.

If it wasn't for the Bay Area, I would live in either San Diego or Seattle. Both very nice cities and I would love to go back up to Seattle again since I've only been there once.

 

[Mary Ann]

I love where I'm living now, both the house and the city, but like teacake the internet is very important to me because all my family members live in other countries (I don't consider my in-laws family, and they don't exactly like me, either) and my friends live all over the world as well. Since I'll never be able to live in one place and have everyone I love living close by to me I consider where I am home, and I try to make the most of it.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I'm in the process of making my new home as we speak. It feels good.