Home (518 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.72 on 11 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by FunnyAsCancer (View user info) at 2006-11-25 00:38:39 EST
Home is what you make it.
Home is where the heart is.
As long as you have family, you'll always have a home.
We've all heard these delightful little nuggets of Hallmark insight, these easy-to-swallow doses of reassurance. We've all had friends say them to us when we've been down, feeling blue cause something's not right. We're supposed to feel better, because no matter how bad it gets, you'll always have a familiar place to fall back on.
But what happens when that place you grew up in, your own personal Fortress of Solitude...what happens when it changes too?
There are certain clichés we've come to expect about home, that your parents will always be there, your room won't change, that girl you left behind will still be waiting for you, the whole shebang. All the little aspects of your life when you were a teenager, we expect them to stay the same, and never, ever change.
Too bad everything changes.
You can go back home to find your parents have divorced. You can go home to find your mom changed your room into that office she's always talked about. You can go home to find that girl next door became a whore.
And you have to wonder why.
You have to take that moment, and think to yourself, "maybe this was my fault." And that's a terrifying thing, to know that ultimately, you brought upon your own destruction. And you don't want to have to contemplate these things, but goddammit, you have to know.
After all, this is your life. This is the environment that shaped you, made you who you are today. If you don't understand your past, how are you ever going to forge your future?
Simple. You can't.
And so you lie there on that carpeted floor, wondering just what went wrong. You call your old friends, you talk to the old man, you do whatever you have to to get to the bottom of this. This is the novel of your life, and the Hardy Boys just showed up for a guest appearance.
You dig, and you dig, and there may be tears shed along the way, but you finally find out the answer:
This is not your fault.
You could have been here for every minute of it, could have seen and heard it all, but one way or another, things were going to change. Maybe not in the way you expected it, but oh yes, things were going to change.
You couldn't stop your parents from falling out of love with each other. You couldn't stop that girl from getting drunk at that party. Sure, you might have been able to save your room, but that's not what matters.
What matters about this concept we call home, is the people you leave there. People leave behind possessions all the time, it's the people associated with those items that we really miss.
You don't miss the football, you miss the dad who threw it to you. The clubhouse may have been torn down, but it's your brother you reminisce about. It's not the bed you can't forget, it's the girl you shared it with late one night.
Items don't change. People do.
They are the home you expected to find, the family, the friends you once knew, but now have matured into someone else. They are the ones who now let you down, as you find yourself at the front door of the life you once left behind.
People change. That's just a fact of life. Whether it be physically or mentally, ten years down the road, that person you knew will no longer be themselves.
Will you accept that, and take the shock when it comes?
Or will you stand by them, walk the path of life at their side, so that the change is slow and gradual, an easy-to-swallow dose of assurance?
Because you know they were right. You can never go home again.
That's why you have to take it with you, and never, ever leave it behind.
User Reviews
Submitted by rodyarask (user info) at 2006-11-27 17:44:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Now I am sad. You suck.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-11-27 09:27:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Lizz_Zero (user info) at 2006-11-26 12:28:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I cried after reading this because i know all to well that my home is gone.
Submitted by natedawg (user info) at 2006-11-26 11:10:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by HotWillie (user info) at 2006-11-25 22:13:11 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
Pussy.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-11-25 05:21:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Walk it off you tit-suckling pantywaist!
Submitted by whiskey_jack (user info) at 2006-11-25 02:36:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good ol' nostalgia.
Submitted by NerfHerder (user info) at 2006-11-25 01:34:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ah. Coming back for Thanksgiving from college, it is all too true.
Submitted by NANMAN99 (user info) at 2006-11-25 01:13:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
yeah i feel that
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2006-11-25 00:59:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You don't miss the baseball, you miss the dad who threw it to you.
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I changed football to baseball. Hope you don't mind.
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2006-11-25 00:51:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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