The Dichotomy of Home
Home is everywhere and nowhere at all. Home is where I am, but also where my family is.
Home for me is Slovakia, a small country in the heart of Europe. I have lived in many houses in my 19 years, but each of the eight houses I've lived in, mostly in Slovakia, have been my home.
I have found my home in other places too, not just the houses I've lived in. My home is in a little village in the east where I attended summer camp and weekend retreats. My home is also in a small town in the west where my childhood best friend lives. My home is in the sharp-peaked, snowy mountains, it is in the sunflower fields, and it is in the woody, green hills and valleys with smokey fog lifting out of them. My home is in the waterfalls and wooden ladders of Slovak Paradise National Park. My home is in the boxes and suitcases packed up for moving.
And home will be on the airplane, as I travel 5000 miles to go to university. My home in the fall will also be on the Mountain at Covenant College.
When I come home for Christmas, I will be coming home to Slovakia, even though it will be to a house I've never seen before. Most likely, my family will be moving to a new house without me. But it will still be my home.
This past week we closed up a community center in a building that was close to my heart. It wasn't a house but it was a home away from home. I spent countless hours there during my adolescence. I was there when the concept of community was born and set up in a massive, historical building, and I was there when we moved on from it. It was a sad day and I left a small part of my heart there.
I grew up in two different cultures; one of the refined west of my parents' and birth culture and one of my adoptive culture in the traditional east. Sometimes it was hard to live in a dichotomy of cultures like that but somehow I made my home in both. My life is richer because of it.
They say home is where the heart is. Well, my heart is broken up into a thousand pieces and sprinkled all over the world in every place I have been, everywhere I have a memory of. That's where my heart is and that's where my home is. And I love it. I wouldn't change it for a thing!