Home

So I came across some pictures that I took several years ago and it got me thinking... Is home, for you, a place or an idea? Usually, when I say I want to go home what I really mean is that idea of family but I realized when I was talking with some friends the other day that most people mean a place.
I guess that is something I didn't develop growing up with the military. When you move every 1-3 years it's hard to become attached to anything... because you know you'll just have to leave it behind.


The only exception to this was my grandparent's place. They lived in a small town in Oklahoma and I LOVED their house despite the frigid floors in the winter and the crazy woman who lived next door. But then even they moved my freshman year of high school.

I was devestated, because up until that point in time if someone had asked where I was from I said Oklahoma. But their new house wasn't my home. So now, ironically, if someone asks where my home is I say Kodiak, Alaska. It's where we were living when I lost my 'home' and Kodiak seemed, to me, to foster that feeling of family. Of everyone knowing everyone and, by the way did you know this about such and such.

I don't really know many people in Kodiak anymore. Sure, Senior Cindy is still there and some other kids I went to school with are still on the island but I've lost touch... and I hate that. Because on days like today when it just really gets stuck in me that "I want to go home!" I picture a little kitchen with poofy curtains that mom and I stuffed with crumpled newspapers. Fresh baked bread tempting our senses and begging us to knock on the neighbors door. The uber-ruberized stairs squeeking under dock shoes, ever ready for the winter slush. And the people, those people who won't leave you alone because you're a part of the whole. God bless them.

I know I usually say Alaska is a great place to visit, but maybe not to live.... but I sure wish I could visit more often!

Here is my 'home':