Yesterday it appeared to me that I talked about people that I feel at home with but I completely left out the few actual places that make me feel all happy and comfortable, so I wanted to talk about that today.

1. My bff's home
Every time I enter this house I breathe in the smell of detergent and dog and I feel so soothed and comfortable. The living room where we spent endless mornings playing Mario Kart on the Wii U. The kitchen where we laughed and discussed our weird dreams every time we had breakfast. Her bedroom where we played Pokemon the night away, discussed important topics, comforted each other when we felt down, where we watched Pitch Perfect over and over again or continued writing our stories, where we drew so often and couldn't stop giggling in the middle of the night.
It's also the afternoon when we packed all our necessities and just rode our bike to the lake and picnicked or the one where we got completely lost in the area around the town. It's the inline skating and walking her dog into the forest, taking pictures along the way, freaking out over seeing a deer there, discovering all the secrets that it holds.
It's the time when we spent nearly every afternoon together in fifth grade and we went downtown each time and bought five doughnuts at the bakers because they were cheaper like that. Or the time when we played Sims or Minecraft in her basement.
It's a place I call home.

2. My hometown in general
We moved away from the town I lived from my birth till I was ten years old a long time ago, but still it feels more like home than the town we're currently living in.
It resembles elementary school and finding new friends and being kind of popular actually. It's the first crushes and love letters, the hiding and pretending you don't actually like this person. It's spending every afternoon with my elementary school bff trying to figure out who screams louder and eating sausages out of the microwave each evening.
It's the summers spent with the holiday program in my town because we never had the money to actually go vacation and finding a ton of new friends there. It's the night I spent at the library because of it and feeling so blissful that the feeling held on for days.
It's the dream of becoming a singer or an actress and feeling like everything's possible and it is the day in fifth grade when I sang in front of my whole class. It's playing hide and seek during the break in fifth grade and finding the best hideout in the world. It's all the laughter and cool people and birthdays.
It's the afternoon when we were playing hide and seek and in addition to that, you had to touch the tree to be "free" and the cooler older girl and us went on an adventure, far far away from that tree and it's winning at the game because of it.
It's a place I call home.

3. Our old house
It's seeing how our house was build and moving into my small room which was soon stuck up with what felt like a hundred books I got from the library and reading the night away. It's the afternoons I spent with my friends arranging a fashion show or a concert for my mother, or the ones I spent running around the huge meadow at the back of our house or building igloos in winter. It's also the ones my brother and I spent chasing butterflies just to build them a new home.
It's the many times my friends and I did a prank buzzing at our neighbor's house but not to piss them off but to lay flowers in front of their door, it's hiding behind bushes and the exciting feeling when they left out some sweets for us.
It's making treasure maps and hiding them for older generations, it's going into the forest in the back of our house and breathing in the fresh air.
It's inline skating with my brother, wherever we wanted to because there were rarely any cars around, the freeing feeling when you drove down a descent and the wind howled around your ears and you feel like Flash.
It's also the times spent wondering but finding new faith to go on no matter what.
It's a place I call home.

4. The home of my exchange student from Saxony
It's the scent of wet dog, the doggie of her being so full of joy that he made me happy, too.
It's walking around her village collecting chestnuts and me getting all scared because the sheep on the meadow started walking towards us and I was so terrified of sheep and then forgetting my chestnuts because I was busy running away.
It's the school days with her, discovering new places and making trips with our group.
It's coming home to a woman that's like my second mum and eating and talking and laughing and jumping on her trampoline.
It's a place I call home.

Which places do you call home?

I look forward to finding new places like this because they make me feel like it is possible to be myself and to eventually find a life of my own.

xxx Sarah