Home Is Where the Heart Is

If this saying is true, then I sure have a lot of property tax to pay. 

This summer I've left a little bit of my heart in Durham and Winston-Salem North Carolina, sprinkled in flat 12 of the FSU London Study Centre, dabbed through the streets of Paris, a dash in the California Hotel in Las Vegas, littered through Waikoloa on the Big Island, smeared in Kihei, and scattered through Lahaina.  My final resting spot for the moment is at our humble Manoa home.

One of my favorite things about our house is its simplicity.  We have quiet evenings and each morning I am woken by the chirpping of happy birds who often are ready to start their day a bit earlier than I.  Sounds sort of Cinderella-eque, but it's true.  Nothing new, nothing fancy, just a good place populated with good people.

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If you were to ask me where I'm from, I would tell you Lahaina.  Although my parents moved us to Kihei while I was still in elementary school, I had no connection to the place or the people.  Anything that was important to me was in Lahaina - school, friends, grandparents.  Even our dog, Skooter, traveled with us each morning on the 30 minute trek across the Pali so he could stay at our grandpa and grandma's house while we went to school.

When I moved to Oahu to attend college at the Unviersity of Hawaii Manoa, I would get thoroughly upset if someone had accidentally asked "when are you going back home to Manoa?".  I would immediately (and stubbornly) respond "Maui is home - not Oahu".  It took me years to get out of that habit.

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I'll be moving back home to Maui permanently in about four months.  Up until now, I've been somewhat of a vagabond - drifting from place to place depending on the time of year - always with the resolve that MAUI IS HOME.  Now that moving day is descending on me quite quickly, I've realized how much I actually do love my life here in Manoa.

I loved my life in London.  On the Big Island.  In Lahaina.  In my first blog, I talked about how this summer would be an adventure of a lifetime.  It really was.  I learned how to exist outside of my comfort areas and to really appreciate all that I have in Hawaii.  While I am excited to be heading home to Maui, I know that I will miss all the conveniences of not-quite-city-but-close-enough life. 

Somehow I know, though, that all these places are sort of like home.  If I ever decide to visit or move anywhere mentioned, there would be arms to welcome me (and the rest of my heart) back.