What is home to me?

Considerations regarding my personal savings have for the last, maybe, eight years mainly revolved around the question “how many flight tickets can I afford?” During my youth my dreams for the future have never involved a house and “settling” but rather “where in the world do I go next?”. 

I have felt quite at home in many countries I have travelled to. Almost in every place I have gone I have at some point thought of the possibility of staying on a more permanent basis and considered what I could work with in that particular place.

Like so many other young people of my generation I have an extensive variety of opportunities. These opportunities include travelling to new places. For me travelling equals excitement, new inputs and being stretched and challenged.  The challenge often arises from encounters and situations that force me to ask myself why I think and act the way I do. The last couple of years the overarching question has been “What is home to me?”. The question seems to become more and more pressing and demands to be answered. 

For me traveling has often meant that my life at times has very little continuity in terms of a staying in the same place or being around the same people for a longer period of time. Travelling has truly enriched my life in many ways. However, what I have found is, that I, as many other post-modern people in a world full of opportunity but very little stability, long for something I can call home.   

Not long ago a friend asked me “What is home to you?”. I replied that home is my loved ones. I think friends and family is the best way of creating “home” in a world where there seems to be no limits to the range of opportunities and thereby also a lack of a frame which can create a space of security and sense of belonging. A home. What would be the consequences, if I really want to live what I say? If my loved once are my home; would that mean that I need to change my priorities? Should I instead of planning new travels and consider how I could create myself a life in a new place, try intentionally to invest more in relationships with people I call “home”?.  

My answer to the question “what is home to you”, I must admit, was not well considered but rather spontaneous. I will still have to wrestle with it. At this point of my life I think this will stretch and challenge me even more than any travelling experience.