Home?

Place, to me is a sense of belonging. Wherever i am "living" at any given time. I came to OU and Athens from a "place" called West Chester. A ritzy town full of spoiled, unthankful rich kids, and really awful cops. When i was in West Chester, i didnt have a sense of "place" really like i do now. When i came to OU, i found a sense of place like i had not before, and then again when i went back home i found place there too, to an extent that i had lost my excitment of coming back to school.

When i came to OU i was excited to get here, the freedom, the people, the partys, the school. In West Chester, my "place" was.... restricted, not free, i couldnt make my "place" in this world my own. Too many restrictions, things were too spaced out to really get the sense of place that i achieved when i got to OU. When i got here, from the first weekend... it was fantastic. All of the people were chill, the partys were good, and there was just such a chill vibe to the whole thing. I felt like i had a real home, by that i mean the sense of community you get when you know you can depend on people and they depend on you, and there is no negativity about it all. After the first quarter here i started calling OU home. It felt like home. That is what place is to me. Its somewhere we belong, where we feel we can be ourselves, and make ourselves from scratch. We're "writing our own book" so to speak instead of reading the directions out of our parents "books". When i had to leave OU in the fall, i wanted a good visit back home but i didnt expect to find what i had at OU at home.

When i went home, the first week was slow, not much going on, it was Thanksgiving. But then the next 5 weeks, were the most rediculous. I hung out with a very close friend, but we had never really spent alot of time with eachother. She took me to places i hadnt been, to meet people i hadn't met. There was such a good vibe with everyone there, they all liked me, i liked them all. We all hung out and did things almost every day of week. We became a little "Family" of friends. In such a short amount of time i went from missing OU to loving what i had found, and not wanting to leave it. It blurred the lines on where my "place" really was. It was OU for sure and then it got ... ambiguous.

This whole experience has made me realize that "place" or atleast for me and my "place".... its where you make it. Its about the connections you can make with the people around you. Whether its here, or there, or anywhere. You can make where you are your own "place". Right now, i have two "places" i feel i belong. Maybe you can only have one. But for me, Place is where i feel i belong.