There has been a lot of talk about home around here lately.
How and when we'll get to go home to see family again?
Where our next home might be?
Which city feels like home most?
We've lived in a few different places as a family. We met in Arizona where Jeremy grew up. We started our family overseas in Germany. We bought our first home in Savannah, Georgia.
It's very difficult for us to define where home really is. When you're in the military, home really is wherever you are together.
Alabama is our very temporary home, but still a home nonetheless. One year from now we should be closing that U-Haul door and moving on to the next phase. Like every Army wife, I'm anxious to know where that is. I want to research schools, houses, area, etc. I start planning a life somewhere else before I've finished the one I'm at. Always focusing on the next move, the next house, the next orders.
Like always, we don't get much choice in the matter, but once Jeremy becomes a helicopter pilot, our choices of duty stations decreases substantially. There are a few places I've got my eye on.
Washington
Photo courtesy of Carrie Henegar |
I've been in the south, Midwest, southwest...I'm ready for my PNW experience. I know I already have a few friends in that area to greet me. Am I keen on the thought of losing hot summers and constant sunshine? No, but it's coastal, and that's very important to me. I can't be landlocked, I need the ocean to feel free.
Hawaii
Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Camera |
Ocean. Free. You get it.
Also, we are major get-out-of-house people. We are travelers and explorers. I want to go snorkeling and ride zip lines and see real waves. Hawaii is for families like us. And seriously, imagine what this could do for my blog!
Savannah, GA
Savannah is cobblestone streets, farmers markets under giant live oak trees, haunted streets and Spanish moss. Savannah is the greatest St. Pats party in the world, southern charm, art school hipsters and Paula Deen. Where I made the most amazing friends and learned how much I could accomplish. My heart remains on the campus where I spent three special years of my life and going back to Savannah would mean getting to return home to finish what I started.
And then there's Germany.
I know so many military families who got their start in Germany, but I don't really know if it had the effect on anyone like it had on us. We became "us" in Germany. We found our love of travel and history there. We found our home. Our first home.
To this day, we ache for Germany.
I don't know what the future holds. We have been very lucky, I think, with our duty stations. And even if we do end up somewhere less desirable, we always make the best of it.
Wherever we do end up, we'll just add it to the long list of places we consider home.
Is there a place that feels most like home to you?
Wherever we do end up, we'll just add it to the long list of places we consider home.
Is there a place that feels most like home to you?
23 Comments
Wow, some really beautiful places listed there. I love the way you just embrace the fact you will be moving and believe anywhere can be 'home'.
ReplyDeleteI have to say at the moment, nowhere really feels like 'home' to me. There's the city where I grew up, but honestly I drove away from my childhood home and felt nothing, literally nothing.
I've been in our new town for just over a year now and again, it feels nothing. I feel like we are here on an extended vacation, that if we drove away tomorrow, I wouldn't miss this place at all. I don't know how to put it, but I feel like nowhere really calls to me. The only thing that feels like home is my fiance and I suppose that will have to be enough.
Wow, what a wonderful post! I can totally relate and I/ we feel the same way about the US as you feel about Germany! We found ourselves there and we ache for the US so much! We hope to be able to return one day!
ReplyDeleteMay your next home be wonderful! xxx
what a great post! home = somewhere cozy and feels right to me. that'd be like chicago since i live/have lived so close to it. stopping by from the link up! so glad i did because your blog is super cute! cant wait to read more :)
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up on the HOP today!
Beautiful post Jessica =) You do know that if you move to Washington I will not be able to resist flying up to see you and Carrie. I loved loved loved Germany but I don't know if I could do it again. I'm having major separation anxiety from my family and they're just a 12 hour drive away right now! I think getting to live within a 5 minute drive of everyone really spoiled me and now it's a little hard to handle. I keep telling myself ASHLEY you lived in Germany AND Italy...FAR FAR away from them...you can handle Illinois lol. I know wherever you end up you'll make it your home because that's what Army wives do =)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who feels unsettled right now. We have moved so much (not military, even!) and we miss our family so we're thinking about another move come September. Good luck with wherever you end up...looking forward to reading about your adventures!
ReplyDeleteDitto. Home. Such an undefined word when you are a military family.
ReplyDeleteMy vote goes to Washington because I want to end up there too, but thats not even on our 'wish list' at this point.
Savannah felt like home, only I didn't know it at the time. I don't want to go back there yet, but I do at some point.
Home? What's that? :P I haven't even moved as frequently as many--but I've lived in 8 homes in three different states and 2 different countries in my 21 years, and after a while it's easy to get caught up in missing wherever you are not living at the moment. I try really hard to convince myself that where I currently live with my husband is "home," because he's there, but for now when I think "Home," I still think of where my parents live.
ReplyDeleteI was gonna try to help you decide and then all of your options were so great i couldn't help haha i do love Savannah though!
ReplyDeleteI have never lived more than an hour away from my childhood home, but I think I would love the change if we did move! I don't like things staying the same for too long.
ReplyDeleteI love this post. Can't wait to see where you end up next! :)
ReplyDeleteYou really have lived lot of places, I think that is awesome. I have lived in 2 places Portland Oregon (born and raised, now we are back) and Phoenix Arizona, it was WAY too hot there for me. I found your blog from the blog hop!
ReplyDeleteMrsB
www.prettylivingpdx.blogspot.com
stopping over from the blog hop.. hawaii would be amazing, i've always wanted to go, but never have! i'm your newest follower :)
ReplyDeletexo,
Lindsay
Hi! I'm your newest follower from the blog hop! Come over a visit me sometime today! :) Your blog is SO cute! I love your header girl! I've only had one home my whole life, NC. But wow, you've lived in a lot of places, so many memories you'll always have from them!
ReplyDeletexoxo ♥ Shar
http://sharmartinez.blogspot.com
Getting stationed in Hawaii wouldn't be that bad huh?! ;)
ReplyDeleteI have a few 'homes' - my family home, where I went to universitu and the town where I work. Essentially I think until I move one and start my own family, home will always be where my Mum is!
Hi, I saw you on GFC. OMG this post is perfect for my link-up on my blog today. Please submit it!!
ReplyDeleteI forgot the link! Sorry! Haha!
DeleteWanderlust Wednesdays
Thank you so much for linking up! :) This is so great!
DeleteI'm from New Zealand, and Maori call this concept Tangata Whenua. They believe we all have a spiritual connection with the land which I think is so true. Our heart/home can be in many places!
ReplyDeleteNewest follower from Return the Favour. Hopefully you drop by some time! x
http://sweetpeasylvie.blogspot.co.nz
Hey Jess,
ReplyDeleteI'm catching up on my blog reading & came across this post. I am so with you on wanting to know where our next home will be. You seem to be really go with the flow & accepting of moving frequently. I hope a little of that rubs off on me!
I'm currently stationed in the Netherlands and am hoping to move from here to Germany (I'd really rather stay here but have made peace with the fact that that's not an option). I'm probably moving to SHAPE in Belgium but I'm reminding anyone and everyone I can that that's not where I want to be. Who knows, though, perhaps we'll be at the same duty station sometime.
ReplyDeleteAnother Jessica
I keep forgetting you move around so much! I didn't know you lived in Germany, how cool! It would be great to go back I bet. I'm secretly going to hope they station you REALLY close to Canada. Then we can meet up! ;)
ReplyDeleteMove to Washington! We're both from there and desperately trying to get back....It's so pretty and the people are awesome too. I'm seriously bummed that we missed each other while both in Savannah, so maybe us moving to Washington at the same time will make up for that! :)
ReplyDeleteComments are my favorite...