Home is an idea, a concept, a feeling, that has often alluded me.

I honestly never felt what I would call homesick until I visited Nashville.

Growing up my parents divorced when I was 5 so “home” was always two houses. And my one set of grandparents I also spent a lot of time at.

At the age of 14 I went to a high school an hour and a half from “home” and lived in a dorm as a result. I LOVED it. But, add one more place to the list competing for “home.”

College came and I moved to Milwaukee for school. That was the first place that felt like home to me. I loved that city and although a piece of my heart and a branch of my roots will always be there, I never felt homesick when I left.

But Nashville, I felt homesick after my first visit. It was the craziest thing. And it took me a couple of days to even sort it out in my head. But, almost every time I have left since I’ve moved here, I’ve been homesick. The only times I haven’t is when I’ve left with friends. And went to friends.

Perhaps that’s because at the end of the day home is more about people than it is about a physical place because our hearts can be tied to & invested in people. I like that definition because it means that home can be several places. And as I’ve met friends who live in various parts of the country and even the world I feel like my roots just keep on spreading.

Yes, they’re deeper in some places, like Nashville, than others. But then there are places I’ve never been. Places that I am ready to go to with my whole heart. Places I honestly feel homesick for even though my feet have never touched that part of the globe. I am so ready to go to those places. To expand home. To plant roots around the world. Because it feels like life…like home.