You know the drill.

You buy the suitcase, you agonize over what to pack and weight limits, you host the party, you say your teary eyed goodbyes and you are gone. You take your feet and you walk yourself right into another life in another city, or country, or continent.

returning home- travel

You settle in.

It takes some time and maybe you don't know the language as well as you had hoped and you end up speaking like a male chauvinist because you never remember gender rules when conjugating. You make it work, and it's hard but it's a challenge and you embrace it and at the end of the day it's what you told yourself you really want to do and goddamit you aren't going to be 20-something forever.

So you start this new life and you learn and you grow and you laugh and you blink and... it's over?
Then what?

You know how to pack but do you know what it means to "unpack"? This is real life again and it's not as exciting, or perhaps it is....you just aren't sure yet.

What you are sure about is there is no guide book to coming home, no helpful index explaining how to re-introduce yourself to your home town, no translation hints to the suddenly foreign language your friends and family are speaking.

returning home- airport

You thought it was hard before? You haven't seen anything yet.

Pictures and memories are tricky, some you want and some you don't, some remind you of this mythical place called "then" and some are just to painful or confusing to have "now". You open boxes and feel like your life might never be fully unpacked again.

You go about the hunting and gathering for a job, apartment, new pass times and see that it's all a little different then you remember.

The truth is you are confused friend.

You caught that wind that blew you into a new perspective and now you need to find a balance upon your return. Your suitcases stare at you, neglected, begging, but you turn your back.

This is your home, you tell yourself. This is your time to be you, and work on your goals, you write on a clogged calendar among notes about shift times and extra overtime. This is what you really wanted...right?

People tell you "home is where your heart is", well news flash, your heart is in your chest, your home is wherever you choose to build it.