Homecoming

"I swear that I've gotta get out of here."

Jim Crocher sang these words after moving from the quiet Pennsylvanian countryside to the big apple. In my case, however, my New York was London. Even if Pennsylvania didn't necessarily feel homelike to me for many many years... it sure felt good to be back after being away for so long.

I arrived at 7PM on a Thursday, straight from the polar vortex of central Sweden.

I sat next to and Icelandic professor of Nordic languages on one plane, and next to an American vegetarian traveler much like myself on the other flight. I watched through all of Back to the Future and “Ready Player One”, and enjoyed very good conversations on the way home. I was beautifully surprised to see my mother again for the first time in four months, and I would soon come to learn was that I have grown closer to my family since leaving the country.

However, when I got home, a very strange feeling swept over me. I knew that I was back in my mom's house, yes, and I made it home for Christmas, but yet I'm only felt like a visitor. Pennsylvania no longer felt much like home even though I spent the first 23 years of my life there. 

But so, I realized, as I was seeing my good friends again for the first time in several months, but it was almost as though nothing had changed and I had never left. But yet, I was calling a foreign country home for the next two years of my life. But the only thing that mattered is that in this moment, I was at home, where I was meant to be.