"Home Is Wherever I'm With You"

HOME.

As all of you probably know, I've been a woman on the MOVE these past few years, spending significant time in Ohio, Cuernavaca, Boston, and most recently, Santiago, Chile. In each new place, I spend a crazy amount of time creating a life, a routine, and an environment that I can hopefully eventually call HOME. In each of these new places, I inevitably find myself thinking at some point that it will NEVER happen. Crying buckets at Parents Weekend my freshmen year at college, standing on the roof of my Cuernavaca apartment, looking out at the city and wondering how I landed myself in a place where seemingly nothing was familiar, and most recently, walking across a larger-than-life university campus, pretending to look bored and jaded, but really feeling overwhelmed and awe-struck..... these are the moments that I just want to turn back the clock, go back to elementary school and come home to Park Street in Montclair, New Jersey.

But these are also the moments that have made me realize that home is so so so very much more than an address, a town, or a country. In each new place, it has been the kind and wonderful people that consistently come into my life and turn each strange new place into a home.

So here I am, almost 5 weeks into my 8 weeks in Santiago. Will I leave this place feeling that I'm once again leaving my home? Well... no... I think that may be unrealistic for a 2-month stay! But being here has once again given me the chance to realize the many homes I do have and the people that I call home.

Last night, my friend Tiffany (one of those friends who turned Boston into a home!) reminded me of this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4306i99LMXo&feature=related

As I sit here in Santiago, the lyrics to the chorus make me think of all of you who make up my many homes in New Jersey, Ohio, Cuernavaca, Boston:

"Ahh Home. Let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I'm with you."