As I step off the plane, my friend texts me: “Welcome home!” Normally, I wouldn’t even think twice about this. I would respond saying thank-you, and how excited I was to be home. Only this time, I paused for a second. I had to think twice about it.

I spend the majority of my time here at OVS. I live here, I go to school here. And at some point, withought me even realizing it, I started thinking of it as home.

My family is in Colorado, and when I’m on break that’s where I go. Aspen is beautiful, but at the same time it’s hard for me to be there. The friends I had while going to school there I have grown apart from.

It’s hard to go from living in the dorm, where almost all of my friends are around me 24/7, to Aspen where I don’t have very many people to connect with. When I came to school here my friends slowly became best friends, and from there they morphed into a second family.

.

And while I miss being home at times, when I’m home I miss being at school.

So when my friend texted me that welcome home message at the beginning of break, I thought to myself that it’s just one of my homes. The home where my family is. But my life, my life is back in California.