A friend shared this article, “What Moving House Can Do for Your Happiness” from the Atlantic and it resonated. So often, I’ve moved to a place for work or school. Nebraska, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, all of those places were to further my career or my partner’s career. In St. Louis, I felt “this could be home.” I didn’t necessarily want it to be home. After three years I began to look for jobs in Michigan, hoping to move back to the place that was home for me and to be closer to my family.

Careers brought us to Arkansas. Was this home? We made it home. We bought our first house. Our children were born there. We were part of a tight-knit community due to the liberal arts college at which we both worked. Our friends were mostly in academia and had children the age of our kids.

But home is so much more than a house and a job. Home is the place that knows you, where it feels like the place recognizes you somehow.

Our last move was an attempt to find home. We moved to Boston and there are parts that are new and unfamiliar. But, overeall it feels closer to home. Once again, we live in a place with four seasons. The horizon reminds me of Michigan with a line of water blurring to sky. Yes, there are crowds. Yes, it’s a large city. But I’m not in a daily state of conflict due to the climate, politics, religion, and culture. I can be myself here, as long as I don’t tell people how much I dislike the New England Patriots.