Day 14 – N is for Nostomania

Nostomania
(noun) an irresistible compulsion to return home; intense homesickness.

 

What do you call home?

Is it your house?

Your house can be a good home. Maybe its the only house you’ve ever lived in. Maybe you have a lifetime of memories there and your own bedroom and all your stuff and family and it just feels right.

Is it a town? Or a region?

Maybe you’ve moved around a bit in the same area. You know that town well though. You’ve seen businesses come and go. A lot of your friends are still around. You recognize your teachers in the supermarket. Everything is nice and comfortable.

Is it a safe place?

Maybe what you call “home” isn’t a place you spend all your time, but a place you escape to when you need a break from the world. Maybe its a grandparent’s house, or a cabin in the woods. Just somewhere where you can be yourself and not worry about anything else. Where you can relax and just exist for awhile.

When I moved across the country two years ago, I never thought I would feel homesick. Having spent my childhood moving from town to town, I never really felt like I had a proper “home.” The houses I lived in were just borrowed temporarily, places that I would never see again once I left them. I thought that maybe I was immune to homesickness. Sure, I felt nostalgic about some such places, but not homesick.

Later in my life, I actually began to stick around a place for longer than a few years. Once I began dating my future hubs, I stuck around his hometown for, shoot, a decade maybe? And that was enough time to make it feel like home. When we moved, I was suddenly aware of what a new place feels like when you’re an adult. Everything is already so established. Everyone has their own lives already. It’s hard to find your place. And for the first time, I actually felt… homesick.

I wouldn’t say that I felt nostomania however. Although I do miss the Midwest, the desire to experience new places still takes precedence. My husband has considered jobs all over the country, and even a couple outside of the United States and I have been okay with most of them. If I truly felt nostomania, we probably wouldn’t have moved in the first place, much less stayed away for two years.

I’m curious about your home though…have you ever experienced intense homesickness? Let me know in the comments.