There are a lot of sayings about Home out there. For example:
- “Home is where the Heart is”;
- “Home Sweet Home”;
- “No place like home”;
- “You can’t go home again”.
There are examples ad nauseam.
Most of this sayings seem to refer to a place. I believe most people attribute home to a place, a location, a building even. Recently, a friend referred to “You can’t go home again.” Thomas Wolfe presented a good view of why; one that I agree with, though maybe not completely.
Before I went to college, I called my maternal grandparents’ house, home. When I thought of home that is where my mind went, to thoughts of my childhood and fun with friends. I spent a significant portion of those days there, with family and friends. What good memories I had left of years past, laid mostly there. Thus, it was home.
When I got to UChicago that definition quickly changed. I walked off the train with my mom and made my way to the quad a whole 4 days before everyone else. Once I stood there, in front of Eckhart Hall looking toward Cobb, I just knew I was home. At that moment, I understood what Home was, and I hadn’t even met one person, been inside one building.