The Definition of Home

A lot has changed for me over the past two years.  For one, I packed up everything I owned and moved from Houston to Singapore - kind of a big deal.  It's not exactly easy moving from one city to the next, and it's especially more difficult when that city happens to be in another country, on another continent, literally on the other side of the globe.

Over time, we find chemistry with new friends, get into the groove of a new life, and the old life fades into memories of the past.  Luckily, there are those few people that we always hold on to - the ones we still call regularly, email often, and especially the ones that, after not speaking for six months, somehow pick up right where they left off.  In a way, these life changes make the best of friendships even greater.

So at what point does the old life become past, and the new life become present?  I realize this is a strange question, but for the longest time I considered Houston to be my real home.  Singapore was just a temporary place, comparable to college.  I am here for so much time, and then I go back.  Back home.
But since my last trip to Houston in December/January, I've come to realize that Singapore is my home.  This is where I live.  This is where I've formed my life.  Am I ready to leave that life?  Am I ready to leave my friends?  My main pool of friends aren't in Houston any longer, they are here with me.  Of course I miss my family, my friends in the US - but what of my life here?

When I do move back to Houston at the end of this year, I will leave my home, and I will begin a new life, build a new home.  Houston won't be the same, I will develop new friends, and only a fraction of my old Houston life will still be there waiting for me.  So many of my friends have moved on, to new places and new adventures.
That is what my journey is as well - a series of adventures.  And when my Singapore adventure ends, I know that I will have the strength to begin a new one, to build a new life once again.  But I also know that my adventure here will never be forgotten, and the relationships I have made, the places I have seen, and the incredible things I have learned will stay with me forever, having transformed me into an even more spectacular individual.

Singapore, I love you.