Home

 What is a home? All our lives, we're taught that a home is a house that we build a family in, put material things in and make our "home".  I am almost 40 years old, and it took me almost that long to realize that is all wrong. At least for me. Home isn't about having 4 walls and a roof or about the material possessions you put in those walls. It's about the people. If your life is surrounded by people who do not have any respect for you, do not cherish you as a person, do not understand you: you won't feel at home, no matter where you are. If you have people or a person in your life, that does these things, you can literally live in a box, a car, on the street and feel completely at home. For almost 40 years, I had never really felt at home in any of the places I had lived, aside from with my parents/immediate family and even then, sometimes I didn't feel at home and felt like an outsider. It took me so long to realize, my home isn't a house. I felt more at home, living in my car for 5 months than I had felt in a house I lived in for almost 13 years. When you have the right people in your life, you feel safer, no matter where you are. You laugh more and enjoy the little things more. You cherish EVERY moment, more. You feel understood, seen, heard, cherished, loved. It took a long time to realize all of this, but I count myself very blessed to have finally realized it. And I truly hope that one day, everyone feels at home, wherever they may be.