"Hey, where are you from?"
This is one of the first questions that are often asked when you are meeting someone new, and I find it to be one of the most difficult questions to answer. Do they mean, "where I am from" right now, "when I am from" meaning where we grew up, or "where are you from" where we call home? This seems like it should be a simple question, but it is complex for us. Where we currently live is not where we would call "home". Where we currently reside is exactly what it is, a residence.
What kicked up this quandary? One of Adam's uncle's asked us
"Where is home for you?" at one of the recent gatherings, and we
really couldn't answer it other than wherever we are together. And it's
absolutely true. As long as we are together, the world is good, we ARE home.
Separated, I suppose home would be where our parents are, as we both refer to
Johnstown (Adam) and New Hampshire (me) as home too.
If you have been following the saga of us for any amount of time, you will note that we have not lived ANYWHERE for more than two years. We lived in Hawaii for 4 years, but moved halfway through due to this "itch" of needing/wanting something different somewhere else. Fortunately, we both suffer from this disorder so we aren't driving each other crazy. In hindsight, Hawaii was the closest thing to us of feeling "at home" for either of us, and we are eager to return, but even there, we still had to move around. Where does my soul call home? I honestly don't know, either I haven't found it in a physical location or it is a place I cannot actually reside in. My happy place and place of absolute peace and happiness is about 30 feet under the ocean looking back up to the surface, watching the sun rays filter through and the waves roll over, with my amazing husband right beside me.
Though, I do really wonder if there is a physical "home". I know that I had a wonderful one provided to me by my awesome parents growing, and I am still completely comfortable being there and being with them, but I cannot say that I have had one since then. Honestly, I really one either. I know that we are raised in a home, and the life goal is go grow up and create your own, but the further we go along, I don't know that creating a physical place to call home is a goal of ours. We absolutely thrive with our freedom, uncommitted (except to each other) lives, and passion for travel. It is what we work so hard for. We love new places, new experiences, and new views...having a permanent locale, a home, just doesn't meet that need.
I realize that this isn't the same for everyone, actually, I recognize that we are quite the rarity, especially within our given families. We just don't operate like that. We tried the homeownership thing. It was a lot of work, commitment, and obligation. Too much time was spent maintaining a location that we would rather spend elsewhere doing other things, and never spent much time at other than sleeping and maintaining.
What all of this is trying to say is, we are from nowhere and we are from everywhere. We once lived in many areas and we currently reside in a location that will become past tense at some point, another town on the growing list. Time spent in each locale has been wonderful, because we were together, growing and living an experiential and passionate life with each other. And Maia, the kitty. Each choice is thoughtful and intentional. We have absolutely no idea what the end point is and we really don't care. As the quote always goes, it's not about the finish line but rather about the journey taken to get there. We are not having our lives be on hold for "someday" or "eventually", every single day is the "someday" as we do not ever want to look back with regret on an opportunity not taken, or an experience not had. For us, this is us. Nomadic and blissful.
That being said, I am glad that our parents still have homes, and that our family and friends are building their own "homes", because that does give us a place to visit, a place to be familiar with. These homes serve as our constants, our bases. And maybe that is the point of all of this, my concept of home will never lie in a physical location, but in the people that occupy them.
