Having relocated to Raleigh, N.C. just over a year ago, this has been cause for much reflection for me. I don’t quite feel like I can honestly say simply “Raleigh” yet. Instead, my reply is more often “I live in Raleigh.” That’s the simple answer (and it is true), but it evades the implication of origins and belonging.
The more complete answer is also more complicated, so I’ll chart it out:
| City/State (or Country) | Reason for moving |
|---|---|
Columbus, Indiana | Born and raised |
Boston, Massachusetts | School |
Aix-en-Provence, France | School |
Washington, D.C. | Work |
Bloomington, Indiana | School |
Dakar, Senegal and Paris, France | Transition between school and work (research) |
Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana | Transition between school and work (writing) |
Washington, D.C. | Work |
Detroit, Michigan | Work (with family influence) |
Raleigh, North Carolina | Work |
These are places I’ve actually had an address. If I incorporated shorter term travel for vacation and research, just the last year would also include Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Mali (international) and Gainesville & Miami, FL; Indianapolis, IN; Louisville, KY; New York, NY, Columbus & Toledo, OH; San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC (domestic).
So the question “where do you live” and “where are you from”—and again “where’s home”—have varied greatly over time. As far as where ‘home’ is, I honestly can’t answer one particular place. If I had to choose, I would answer Indiana, DC, Dakar, and France, though the last only because I had a profound sense of belonging there when I lived in Aix-en-Provence for a year during college (I haven’t returned since—does that matter?). I also lived with a family in northwestern France during high school, and have returned there to visit for over 20 years.
As suggested in the exhibition Far from Home, people relocate for many different reasons: educational opportunity, employment, leisure/vacation, political freedom For me, it has been a matter primarily of education and professional development. Perhaps this is the place for a confession: though Far from Home is first and foremost about the artists and artwork, it is distinctly autobiographical on my part as well.
So let me ask a question to all of you in the blogisphere:
For you, where is home, and what makes it so?
—Kinsey Katchka, curator of Far from Home
1 comment:
Home for me now is a small town in northern Ontario, but I am originally from Columbus, Indiana (a Google Alert for Columbus IN connected me to your blog post). I, too, went to school in Bloomington, Indiana. After university I moved around a bit, working in southwestern Indiana and in Louisville, Kentucky, but eventually returned to Columbus to be near my beloved grandparents. By the time they passed on I was fairly committed to working and raising my children in Columbus. The kids certainly didn't want to be uprooted until they graduated from Columbus East and went off to university. Throughout the years I traveled a bit (Mexico, Canada, Italy, many other American states) but Columbus was home.
Three years ago I met a wonderful Canadian man, married him six months later, and moved to join him in Canada and find a new way of life. My grown children moved to California a few years ago. The rest of my much-less-adventurous family still lives in Columbus and has a hard time understanding why I moved away. Columbus will always be my hometown, but it is no longer my home. I don't know if I belong here, but northern Ontario is my home for now.
Here in Canada, when asked where I am from, I usually just say that I am from "the States". If the person who asked is interested I sometimes elaborate by adding "Indiana, near Indianapolis". Living among Canadians and French Canadians, it amuses me to hear that I have an American accent!
I think that it is quite enlightening to move beyond the confines of birthplace and explore more of the world. It gives you a much better perspective on life. Traveling can be enlightening, but actually living in another environment is much more educational.
I wish you well in your chosen endeavors wherever you call home.
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