Home
“Do you need a map of this area?” the guy behind the Hertz rental counter asked. I paused, unclear as to what he was actually asking for a split second. “Uh, no!” I answered, surprised at my own delay. What makes a place home? Simply knowing your way around, or something else that grounds you there?
I’ve been in Zurich four and a half months now, and have yet to feel out of place. My one and only experience of utter displacement and confusion occurred upon my return to California from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I had been attending grad school. I had never felt so uprooted in my whole life, and this I can only explain by saying that I did not want to leave, and I did not want to return to California. Perhaps home has nothing at all to do with how long you’ve been somewhere, whether you were born or grew up there, or even the familiarity of a particular place. Home is wherever you want to be, right now in the present tense.
I am home.
