The Ride Home

Quite literally this is an photo of the path I use to bike to my apartment from class, but simply pausing for a moment on my bike and taking this picture coupled with my mind racing over an essay I am wading through drew out much more than an innocuous image.

I ride home today from my exam only to get in my car in four days and drive home from college. But what is home, can you have two. Home has become such an overlooked part of our everyday speech. It seems reasonable to say home will always refer to the place we grew up, our hometown.

But once we move beyond that microcosm, when is a new home created? Does a second home reduce or eliminate the first? Can we carry our home with us? The singularity of the word makes a pluralistic definition seem illogical, even though I will quickly admit to saying my "other home." It even seems common to refer to a hotel or cottage one stays at for a week or even just a few days to take on the concept of home for that short time.

Random thought...