I know Santa Clara well, having gone to college at Santa Clara University. I can imagine that the South would be a huge change for a teenager and am glad that the post resonated with your dad.

I told a California teenager that I was moving to Mississippi and she got a funny look on her face. “What’s there?” she said. I had no concept of what it was like here before I visited, and certainly no idea that Jackson was such an artsy city with a small-town feel. I’m happy that I can send glowing reports back to my people.

I showed this to my dad, and it brought back a lot of memories for him. He transplanted from Santa Clara, Cali. to Mississippi when he was 16 and has been back to the Bay Area three times since he moved here.

I remember going to Orinda for a family reunion when I was near 17, and my California cousins the same age having the normal misconception of people from here. They spoke slowly to me like I was a baby. I finally had to tell them that they could speak normal and that I may be from Mississippi, but I am not stupid.

I like to know that you have an open mind of our wonderful, though a little crazy state. Mississippi is a culture all its own. Her beauty is her uniqueness and having to find the things worth looking for.

Also, welcome to our little piece of humid and hot paradise.

I had a similar identity adjustment in the South, too. In the Bay Area I hadn’t seen myself as especially green, but in Mississippi I realized how I’d taken my green ways for granted (recycling, composting, etc.). Luckily, my crowd in Jackson is as politically progressive and socially conscious as my friends back home, so I’m in good company. That said, I stick out as one of the only Asians and someone with a California accent (we tend not to think of ourselves as having one). As you said, I think it’s healthy to live for a time outside the place you grew up, because you expand your frame of reference.

There is something comforting about the drive up the 101 home to Petaluma. Passing Saint Mary’s Help, where I was born, San Francisco State, where I graduated from college, and Parkmerced, where I lived while in the city. The curve of Park Presidio that leads to the GG Bridge still excites me like a carnival ride . . . and then, there, as it always is . . . the Golden Gate. Red and powerful and so iconic . . . and I feel home.

Then the concept of “home” slowly fades as the visit progresses. I walk around Petaluma and realize I don’t recognize as many people as I once did. Familiar pastry shops have turned into sushi bars and Starbucks does not come close to the “hair of the dog” I looked forward to at Deaf Dog. The store I used to buys incense and beaded jewlery at in high school now sells $180 jeans.

Things change and it took me a long time not to be annoyed by that. The best part about moving to another place is that you can take where you left from with you. All your experiences and memories that shaped who you have become today can shape the experiences you will find in your new surroundings. Leaving the Bay Area and moving first to Miami and then north to Fort Myers certaintly challenged my view of the world. Suddendly this liberal girl with a social work degree and an earing in her nose became the “exception” at work, with my new family, with friends. That’s a life lesson in itself . . . to be, or feel like, the odd man out. Getting out of your comfort zone forces you to try new things, do new things, experience situations through different eyes. And, maybe that’s not a bad thing these days. Maybe learning to see things from someone else’s perspective can change yours.

Val, I’m curious about the city you feel is truly home, after all that moving around. Those are some pretty different places! What I love about traveling around the U.S. is that I can actually envision myself living in a lot of environments. Having grown up in the Bay Area, I used to think that I could never live anywhere else. I was happy to find that this wasn’t true. I like your blog, by the way! It’s a great idea, and an example that people can keep up with technology if they want to, no matter what their age.

Ide, I totally agree that your community makes a place home. That’s definitely a big reason behind wanting to move back to New Orleans. Spending the last year there while Brian was deployed was the best possible scenario– I was surrounded by our friends, my second family really, who supported me during some big ups and downs.

I will be making a new home in Hawaii for the next year or two, and we may have yet another city or two ahead of us before we head back to New Orleans. I’m excited in one way since I love trying out new places, but I’m also eager to get back to the community I love in NOLA. And I expect to see you all there!

Sara, congrats on the house! It must be strange to have spent such a long time away from the place you grew up. It’ll be even weirder once you’ve spent more time in WA than you had in CA. It is strange, isn’t it, that we sometimes end up feeling comfortable in places we never thought we could live. I feel the same way about Mississippi. It even makes me want to live a little farther out in the country.

Stephen, I hear you about the jarring experience of seeing old places turned into something new. The City of Sonoma put in a new stop sign on a street near my house, and I’d have to screech to a halt every time I visited because I wasn’t used to it. The new developments in former cow pastures bother me, but at least a lot of land in Sonoma is covered by pretty vineyards.

Sheridan, “trying on new cities and seeing which ones fit” is a perfect way to put it. There are things I’ve loved about each place I’ve lived — especially Sonoma, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Jackson — and each has suited me well during a different period of my life. It’s liberating to know that you can adapt to life in a lot of different places.

Being that I’ve moved around the country 3 times in my life (twice i can remember, once on my very own), I haven’t had the entire-life-in-one-place-I-call-home experience, but I lived in San Diego and Seattle long enough for seeds to be planted and the feeling of “home” to stick in each place. The one thing that throws me off about going home to visit is seeing old places turned into something completely new and foreign, i.e. sprawling malls and highways where wooded areas used to be.

I agree that home isn’t even a physical place. It’s a feeling, it’s the sense of familiarity, belonging, and security you get amongst friends and family. So it that sense, yes, it never leaves you. It travels with you wherever you go. Or better yet, when we frequent places that we cherish (in whatever city or town we’re in) and make friends, and build community, we are said to have found “a second home”.