Finding Home in a New Place
It's about 2 p.m. in late September. The sidewalks are filled with people carrying massive bags and maneuvering carts into buildings. Cars are honking in the street and some frantic people in yellow shirts are attempting to direct people. They point you toward an odd looking building with windows that resemble a prison. You lug your suitcases and duffle bags up stairs until you get to a room about the size of a closet. You think this can’t be right. It's not possible for two people to live in this space. This has to be a joke. But it isn’t. It's college-move-in-day and you are finally moving away from home and into an entirely new place for the first time.
When I first moved to Eugene, I expected to miss my home more than anything. I read a quote, that I can’t for the life of me now find, which discussed that when you move away from home for the first time, you’ll never know just one place as home again. This is because so many places and people you’ve loved are spread across the different places you’ve lived. Initially, this was terrifying. I was afraid I would never feel completely at peace in one place again, constantly missing something or someone that is elsewhere. However, as I’ve lived in Eugene and at UO, I’ve realized there are things that are starting to make this home as well: going to the river on a sunny day, taking the old buses on a little trip downtown, shopping at the Saturday market, biking through green overgrown parks, seeing the leaves change in fall and the endless daisies bloom in spring. I have never seen a more beautiful spring than I have here. It's the couple of ducks that waddle around campus during the day. It's the cute people that set up picnic blankets and hammocks on the emu green. It's the peaceful rain that lulls you to sleep at night. It's the people that walk you to urgent care when you’re sick and sit with you when you cry.
Even when things start to feel unfamiliar, there are always little things that can ground you. When I was a kid, my mom used to buy licorice at the grocery store even though she didn’t like it. Last week, she told me that licorice was her dad’s favorite candy and whenever she missed home, she would buy some to remind her of him.
This is still a new place for many of us and it can be unnerving to live somewhere so unfamiliar. Our perspective will always be altered by the place that we grew up and there may always be times when we miss it. However, there is so much beauty in finding another place to call home.