Home(s)

When I got to college, people would often ask me, “Where do you call home?” to which I would respond “San Diego” since that was easy and people would usually know where it was. In reality, I am from Encinitas, a town north of San Diego, but before that I lived near Napa Valley (no where near San Diego) and I had called my grandparent’s house in Mexico “home.”I quickly realized that the answer to the question is much more nuanced than an easy “San Diego.” After all, I had moved houses five times before going to college. This piece is a result of my ideas of “home” and all the places that I have lived, starting with the house I lived in Mexico as a baby, and ending with my first-year dorm. I left a piece of myself in every home, as every home left its own impact on me.