Home is where your Family is
All of my cousins went to Knott's Berry Farm today, but I stayed behind to drink coffee with my Dad, help my Mom deliver and set up a wedding in Long Beach, and do my homework. My Mom told me that she wished I had gone to "have some fun and take a break from homework" with the rest of my cousins, but I told her that I had more fun with her and Daddy than I would've riding roller coasters. Spending time with my parents > everything else (when I'm here). It's amazing how much better we get along since I've moved. How we have real, intellectual conversations about society, humanity and how we fit in, what we can DO instead of say to make the world a better place. Never before have I felt so connected and understood by them, and I can finally talk to them about my opinions without being yelled at or feeling like I'm being talked down upon. At first when I moved, coming home was about seeing my friends and doing the things that I missed doing when I lived here that I couldn't do at my new home. When I realized through experience that "Out of sight, out of mind" really DOES exist and after being flaked and ditched out on when I'd come down ... I decided to change the way I defined "coming home to visit". So now, it's about spending time with my family. Showing them how I've grown, showing them that I'm trying to become a real person out there in the big world, that I've been working myself so hard with school and work so they can see that I appreciate all they do for me and that I'm thankful and respectful of opportunities I've been given. That's what coming home is all about now. Being home for me is being with family. Being loved, loving them, and taking advantage of every opportunity I can spend with them before I have to go back to MY home again without them around. Although I hate being in California, I only come back because it's where my family is. Home is where my family is. And now that my WHOLE entire family is here (almost), I am ever so grateful to be here and spend time with them.