Home is...

Linking up at Velvet Ashes today! I want to be better at actually remembering to blog so here we go!

Home is... well I guess it's wherever I have a key that turns the lock. Who says you can only have one set of keys?

Less than a month ago, I was frantically running around packing, unpack, and repacking as I prepared to leave the only home I had ever known as I prepared to move to China. The house I had grown to lovingly refer to as home, the constant in my life. Technically we had moved there when I was 4, so there was another house before that one; I've also reffered to other places as home at the time I was living there; the dorm, sorority house, apartment, and the multiple places I had spent my summers in Orlando and Thailand while in college. But this house the big blue house with the oak tree out front it was and is my home, never did I doubt that it would always be there wander wherever I may but home would always be there. It is the home my family lives in: the one that has pictures on the wall of my childhood, the grandfather clock I had taken countless pictures in front of, my bubble gum pink room walls, the memories that fill my mind happened there, my dogs, the address I list as the "permanent" one because it is a constant it's always been there. It's the house that made Memphis my home, the one who made me #choose901 and begin to love the city I called home. The city and surrounding area (lots) of my friends are, the center point of where I hung out, got coffee, went to school, shopped, and became the point of location to measure distances by. No single things made it a home, it simply was my home... lots went into making it that the family, friends, memories, sights, location all playing a part of where I belonged, lived, and loved. Home is the big blue house with the oak tree and everything that went along with it.

However, less than a month ago I packed my bags and left home. Since then I have found my self in Colorado, on lots of airplanes, a hostel in Beijing, and finally arriving at my new home in Nanjing... a 19th floor apartment with a fantastic view of a huge city. The city where I don't speak the language, know how to navigate around, know more than the people on my team, or have fond memories growing up in; but this 19th floor apartment is my new home because its where I live, its my home even if only a little while. Its mine to grow in, make memories in, love, enjoy. No it's not the home I grew up in or even in the same hemisphere as it but it too is home in the short 20 days I've lived here. It hasn't taken the place of home that the blue house with the oak tree, it may one day, or somewhere else may; but for now at day 20 (almost 21) they are both home to me. The home I lived in and love, am thankful for,and learned a lot it and the home I live in and love, am thankful for, and am learning a lot in.

I also know that while I have two homes for now on the earth, that neither is my actual home. As it isn't found anywhere on this globe, and I long for that home; and look forward to enjoying it with friends from every place I've ever called home.

At this point I'm ok with having two homes, I actually enjoy it. One has been my home for 21 years and the other a short but lovely 21 days. One home helped prepare me for the other, they are different homes in many ways. They aren't the same or even remotely similar from the outside. One has a city I've grown to love, live in, embrace, and so much more wrapped up in it not to mention the people that also call Memphis home that I love. The other I've been anxiously awaiting to arrive in, everything is new, exciting, and different (maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase... ok probably), I only know a few people but it is to a place I love filled with 8 million people I haven't meet yet but still love. I understand that one day that is may not be the case, and having two homes may not be ok; but for now at day 21 I'm ok with that. So I guess home is where ever I have a key that turns the lock. Who says you only get one set of keys?