December 3, 2008
The Place Where I Was Born
As adults, some of us still live in the town where we grew up. Our parents still living in the home where we played as children. However, some of us ache for a place to call home- not having a childhood home to return to. Living in the Appalachian Mountains for the first time at nineteen, I knew I had finally found my "home," although it was such a long way from the place where I was born. Where is your "home?"
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For many, many years I was embarrassed to tell people my home was Idaho. There was/is such a stigma surrounding being from this state - you're from it - but always leaving it. However, leaving Idaho, and Utah to a large extent, and moving to Alabama, made me realize that I am a Western Woman. I am tough, no pretenses, honest, get-things-done, do-it-myself, and sometimes raw, woman - similar to the Idaho landscape. So when I do go home to Idaho, I recognize the place and honor my heritage.
However - some roots run deep and some run wide, and I would like to think many of the places I've laid my head are also my home: Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Hawaii, Alaska, and now Utah (no matter how much I fight the stigmas attached to this place) - if we are the product of the people and places we interact with, then I carry a bit of all of these places with me, and I become a part of them. Home - hmmmmm, Ma
I have three homes besides the place where I was born.
1. Montana. I LOVE the mountains and Montana is a perfectly wild place for a girl at home in the untamed.
2. Chicago. The city has a rhythm about it that just clicks with me. I am at once energized.
3. The Beach. I spent a Thanksgiving alone in Oceanside one year. Ate a cup-o-noodles for dinner and watched the waves roll in and out. Sitting in the sand that night, watching the sun retire, I was absolutely home.
i am still looking. wherever it is i want jon by my side.
Stanley, ID, or Torrey, UT, or Silverton, CO.
But I'm content where I am, in Bountiful, UT. Bosasa!
Just like your mom I feel more at home in Idaho. I have found myself in awe and finding peace there so many times. Things such as the beautiful patchwork fields, jagged and rough mountains specifically the Tetons, the old farmers on their old equipment and of course the power the seasons hold over the land. I have been places some haven't and still want to go to many many more places. But for me it will always hold a special place in my heart like no other.
Interesting question, Jenna. This time of year always makes something deep inside me ache for home. I compare it to that feeling I had as a little girl at sleepovers, when at bedtime I realize that I want to go home REALLY bad. That's pretty much me right now. Sad, but I don't think I'll ever be able to call anything else but Alabama "home." It is just me, through and through.
It can be best summed up with this post I did a few years ago.
http://toniaconger.blogspot.com/search?q=a+sense+of+place
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