I keep a home in my heart

With the holidays coming around, most are preoccupied with thoughts of home, family, food, and love. And I am no exception.

Coming from Michigan, and I know I am hardly alone here, I seldom see my family now that I am in college in New Jersey, (especially because I am on the co-op program and have my own apartment in New Jersey).

What’s more, though, I don’t get to see them for the Holidays until I am physically back in Michigan. It is just too impractical for my folks to come down to New Jersey to help pack my stuff and take me home, especially when I have a car of my own. Although sometimes I really wish they did.

I’d like to say it doesn’t bother me, but it sort of does. It really hurts when I see all of the underclassmen getting picked up by their families in SUVs. I always hear things like: “So, how was your semester?” Of course, the conversation is so basic, so petty, I really am not missing much. But I am. I miss a lot because home is so far away, and New Jersey really just doesn’t do it for me.

In order to have any semblance of peace and holiday, I keep a home in my heart. I focus on the ultimate goal of getting home, and all of the warm feelings that are there. Many of my friends can attest to this: I reminisce a lot.

Even though there are a lot of days I really want to be home (Thanksgiving, my birthday, swimming championships, etc.) and even though I don’t get a chance on a given day to talk to my family, I still keep fond memories of them in my heart, keeping them happy and smiling until I come home.

I knew, leaving Michigan in the Fall of 2011 (a long ways away now) that I was going to be morphed into a new person, a very independent person, being cut off from my main supply line of emotional, economical, and moral support. And, go figure, I have. I am sure anyone else who only sees their family a few times a year knows what I am talking about.

Perhaps not everyone is as sentimental as I am about it, but there are a number of things that I just don’t have here that, frankly, I miss: Michigan snow, pop, my dog, clean tap water, my mother’s cookies, my home fireplace, dirt roads, trees, and stars.

Regardless, I suppose it doesn’t matter whether or not I keep a home in my heart: I am really sick and tired of New Jersey, and I need a holiday.

Michigan, here I come.