Post if you're... oh wait, what?

[-N-]

For once I'm going to ask the mods NOT to alter my thread title or post, as it actually has a purpose, but if you decide to do so anyways, screw you to hell and back.

As I took my two week trip up and down the West Coast of North America (US and Canada) and visited old familiar places and new unfamiliar ones, I came across a strange feeling (at least as far as the old places are considered). I used to think that since I moved around a lot, I'd know a lot of people in the areas where I used to live, and that I'd always have a home there. But things change way too fast, and when I stopped by these towns and stayed with close friends, it didn't really feel like home anymore. At what point do you feel the place where you used to consider home can no longer be considered home? Is there such a point for you?

Discuss.

Or spam.

I encourage both.

N---

[boris no no]

i havn't moved around alot but i'm at uni and all my friends from college all work full time. whenever i meet up with them it's a bit weird because we have very little to talk about. :(

[theundeadhero]

It stops feeling like home once you start to feel at home in your new location. I have moved many, many times.

[m4tt]

Who got your panties in a twist, prince? I think I'll edit your title just for that "screw you to hell and back" comment. And despite the fact that you encourage spam, I do not. I'll close this thread if people spam in it.

Anyway. I lived in Lakeside for 18 years, and I haven't been back in that area since. It just feels weird to go back to that cowboy country.

[fire_of_avalon]

I've lived in the same place all my life and it never really felt like home until I left it. But my house doesn't feel like home. The land does.

But I've always been a very adaptable human being and I feel pretty comfortable and homeish anyplace I go.

[meowwl]

Home is where you make it. When a place has changed enough it will naturally not feel like home anymore. Things and people that are familiar are what makes a place feel like home, a safe, familiar place. When things have changed, they no longer feel entirely safe. :( which makes one feel out of place, and out of sorts. The bottom line is that home is where you feel completely safe, no matter where it is.

[Del Murder]

I came back to my hometown after graduating and it doesn't feel the same. Most of the people I've known are long gone. The house hasn't changed, though. It's like 1998 frozen in time here.

[Mr. Graves]

Well, I've always felt at home in my town, but now that it's becoming a huge ghetto at a very rapid rate, I don't really feel like it's home anymore. Sure, I'm familiar with some things in my hometown, but it's still changing for the worse.

I want to move to a nicer "home".

[Madonna]

I never had a "hometown". I was born in Belgium in hospital that was independant of any town (i.e., it was away from everywhere, apparently, and thus had no town in its address; make sense?), moved away from the town my parents were posted at in two years, and had been a military brat 'til thirteen. There's a few places I got familiar with and have liked, but nothing has really been home. The closest I have to that is my grandmother's, as that has barely changed at all in the last twelve years. <3

/lifestory

[Hawkeye]

my grandparents house. i havent lived there, but for 14years, i have been there at least 5times a year (not much) but i still consider it home. anyone would consider grandmas house home, until she died 4 years ago and grandfather just one year ago. my uncle eventually took over the house, and redid the whole floor. it just doesnt feel the same anymore, and im really angry at him :(

[Jojee]

I've moved around quite a lot, too. Home tends to be simply the place that I like best or that I'm most adjusted to. When the people I know have moved on or changed, when I'm no longer familiar with the streets and atmosphere, then it isn't home anymore. The longest place I've lived in is Appleton -- I actually lived there for over four years now. ^^ Of course I'm in college now and I *actually* live much more in Madison, but I definitely wouldn't consider Madison my home, I don't like it enough~ :]

[Peegee]

I live here full time and visit the family once every four months. Sometimes 2 months, but usually 4. It always feels like visiting somebody else, but not so much that they are strangers that I have to behave myself better than usual.

So really, it's just how much bread you get to have a cookie.

[*ETERNAL FANTASY*]

I moved houses a few months ago and i usually go back to my "old place" or area and it feels kind of awkward but relieving at the same time and since i usually go there and my friends are awesome....feels good actually....its more like i have two homes but i do have the occassional nostalgic moments of where im going to miss hanging out in the usual places!

[Samuraid]

I moved once...to a new home in the same city.

I live away from home now in an apartment near the university...but I still feel at home back home.

[Resha]

I've been moving around almost all my life, and I've actually only found some stability these past ...6 years. Lol. Even now, I don't have a home home, because I keep shifting house.

The only place I always thought I could go back to was my grandparent's house, this really big, creepy mansion - the kind that has ghosts!- which I now know I really loved.

But then...they sold it. So no.

[UltimaLimit]

Home is where the heart is, they say. What they don't tell you is that you always leave a part of yourself behind. Part of me is still in Stockton, vaguely confused, sensing the fear and tension the teachers were trying to hide, hoping the guy with the gun doesn't come my way. Part of me is still at one of my old schools (after Stockton). Hell, part of me is still in summer school, even, and though it was just last year, a lot of stuff was happening in my life at that point, so it has meaning for me. (I guess that's what they call "nostalgia", but it's true.)

But we're getting off topic. Generally, I consider my new location to be home when I grow attached enough to it that part of me will always be there. Part of me is still in my old neighborhood, my memories have faded, but they're still there. A while ago, my mom and I were driving by where my aunt used to work. I pointed out the green building, she pointed out the white one. I was only six at the time, but sure enough, I turned out to be right. Anyway, it's not home anymore--since a piece of my heart will always be in my current location--but I still remember it. But a few years after I first moved away, Stockton still would have been home.

Hope that made some sense. It felt more like tidy rambling to me. :)

[-N-]

Most of your input makes sense to me and I can understand where you are all coming from. Except the spammers. :p I've moved around a lot in my life as well, but each time I did manage to settle down and make the best out of my conditions. It's just that whenever I moved on, and then swung by my old residencies just to visit (I should note this is different from visiting family, as we separated paths on my way to college), it was not at all how I remembered it. Even interactions with the same people was different (usually on the drab side). So of course, my enthusiasm of travelling was dampened a little bit.

Perhaps it has something to do with "moving on" too extremely?

Discuss.

Or spam.

I encourage both.

N---

[UltimaLimit]

Perhaps by "moving on too extremely" you mean "growing up"? If you're an adult, moving around probably isn't as big a deal, but as a kid, you tend to associate meaningful periods of your life with your surroundings. (Lord knows I have.) Now that you and the people you remember are grown up... It would've been different even if you'd stayed in the same town with them, but I think the difference you noticed (the drabness) was amplified by physical distance.

[fire_of_avalon]

I haven't found that my interactions with people I haven't seen for sometime have really changed at all, even people I stop talking to for months on end and then hapharzardly meet in the grocery store. I guess this also goes back to my adaptability. Which kinda spooks my when I think about it, I don't want to be so adaptable I lose fondness for memories that helped make me who I am. I'm thinking too far into this, aren't I?

[Resha]

My problem is that I get too attached to places, sometimes, so I find it hard to leave. That includes hotel rooms. People mean a lot to me, too...but the odds are I'll see the people again, when I won't necessarily see the place. ;_;

[black orb]

>>> I think have lived in 10 different places . 5 different places in my hometown and other 5 different places in another city.
Im glad my current location is the best of all..

[Agent Proto]

The place where I currently live at is my hometown. I can't think of calling some of the places I used to live at my hometown.

[Citizen Bleys]

Who got your panties in a twist, prince? I think I'll edit your title just for that "screw you to hell and back" comment. And despite the fact that you encourage spam, I do not. I'll close this thread if people spam in it.

Ah, Matt, you warm my grouchy, black little heart sometimes :)

As for the actual subject of the thread, I can relate. I've considered Camrose, Halifax, and (lately) Moncton "home," and I get nostalgic just thinking about any of them. Yes, even Moncton, and I still live there.

[Loony BoB]

I'll soon find out. One month until I get back to NZ for three weeks. I think with my friends I'll find it to be home and with my family, while I'll be glad to see them again, will not be home to me any more as I have grown out of living with them now.

[YunaGirl05]

It depends on your thought of what home is. is it where u are where u are most of the time where want to be the house u live in or just with the people u love.

[Skogs]

I've not lived in Australia for almost fifteen years. It's still home to me.