Home

It’s amazing how time flies by. Only two weeks remain of lectures before Block 4, and a week and a half after that, finals are done. I will have taken and finished my first semester of med school ever. In exactly a month from now, I will be flying over the vast blue ocean back to my home in Georgia.

Do I miss home? I’m not even sure where to call home anymore. After living 4 years in St. Louis for college, then another 4 years in Athens, Georgia by myself, then a total of 4 months in Taiwan, as well as doing my fair share of traveling over the years, I think I’ve become immune to sticking with any one place (especially my parent’s home which I haven’t really lived in for the past 8 years). But since I haven’t made a home out of St. Maarten yet, for now, “home” is by default Georgia, where I was born and raised, and a place to fall back on if all else fails.

Although there are a lot of things I like about Georgia, the more I travel, the more I realize the world is much greater and more wondrous than I thought. From the bustling and wonderfully fast-paced lifestyle of Taipei to the lively streets of Guanajuato, the choices of “home” seem endless. In the end it seems the only reason I am loyal to Georgia is because I just happen to be born here. In reality, I could have been born anywhere else and find loyalty there. If it was just sheer coincidence I was born and raised in any one particular place, why should that automatically sway my opinions and perceptions?

True loyalty is by choice. After enough traveling, I may unexpectedly find somewhere across the seas that fits me well, or may find myself returning and ultimately choosing the place where I was born as my home. Or I may find that no matter where I go, I’ve already got what I was looking for the whole time. The world is my home.