One day I'll be home | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: One day I'll be home | Previous Challenge Entry
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01/12/06
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My mother homeschooled me all through my growing up years. I never set foot in a public learning institution until I was 16 when I started attending a local junior college. It was a thirty minute commute to this school and I enjoyed the time by myself during the drive to and from school. During much of those last two years I spent in high school I was not home very often. I worked and had social events to go to and it all kept me pretty busy.

However, as I prepared to graduate from high school and go off to a big university, I found myself spending more and more time at home again. Some of my friends would get mad at me because I always wanted to be home in time for dinner (where my mother, father, and two brothers would sit around the table and enjoy each other’s company) and wouldn’t stay in town past 5 in the afternoon. I didn’t want to miss too many opportunities of being with my family before I left for school.

When I finally did leave for school, it was one of the hardest things for me to do. It’s hard to leave everything familiar and step into the unknown, which is definitely what I was doing. In my young life, I’d moved once, and that was only from one side of town to the other. It wasn’t terribly exciting and I was only about 6 years old.

The university I chose was three and a half hours from my home. That really isn’t all that far, but for me, it was far enough. I also chose a university where no one I knew was going. It was a good thing and a bad thing. It meant a fresh start and a chance to meet many people. But it also meant that nothing would be familiar at all.

The adjustment during the first few weeks was hard, but I gradually got used to the different atmosphere. I'd grown up with friends of almost all ages, but in school everyone was about my age. I shared a room with someone I didn't know, and had to share a bathroom with many other girls. I had to eat cafeteria food almost every day. The social aspect of it all was something very different for me and was the hardest thing to get used to. Though I gradually grew comfortable there, I didn't feel I belonged.

I’ve only been attending that school for a semester now, but it has taught me a lot about what home means. For many people, “Home is where you hang your hat.” I disagree with that statement. I “hung my hat” in the dorms at the university, but I couldn’t honestly call it my home. At the same time, I can’t really say that the house where I grew up and where I’m staying during my break is my home either. I grew up there and everything I hold dear is there, too, but it isn't my home.

There’s another familiar statement regarding home. “Home is where your heart is.” As a Christian, my heart is with God in heaven. That is my true home. I’m an alien here, a stranger in a strange land. The more I get out into the world, the more I realize how true this is. There’s nothing here on this earth that can make me truly happy. If I commit myself to God and to following his ways and walking in his footsteps I know that one day this hard world will disappear, and I will be Home.

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