Home isn’t a set house, or a single town on a map. It is wherever the people who love you are, whenever you are together. Not a place but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.
-What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
When I read this excerpt from the book ‘What Happened to Goodbye’, by Sarah Dessen, something inside me immediately went ‘YES!’. I am from Melbourne where a large part of my heart still resides. My family are there, my childhood friends are there and so many memories lie scattered around Melbourne – a city that I love. For the past 5 years I have lived in London. For the first 2-3 years in London, I saw it as a temporary set up. Melbourne was still my only ‘home’ and London was meant to be an ‘experience’ until I went back. But gradually the lines blurred and somewhere along the way I also started calling London home. I’ve created a new chapter in my life – I’ve embraced this massive, overwhelming city and I’ve made more memories scattered all over London town (and Europe for that matter) with friends, old and new. For a while, I felt like in feeling this way I was somehow betraying Melbourne and everybody there who I loved. I felt like I needed to make a decision about where ‘home’ is and I realise now that I don’t. Like the old saying goes ‘Home is where the heart is’ and as far as I’m concerned my heart is big enough to have left pieces of it all over the place – with people that I love and in places that I love. To my father’s dismay, I am an adventurer, and I don’t think I’ll ever really stop being one. So I’m going to keep following my heart (even if it can be flighty and restless) and keep building my home on each moment that means something, and take it with me everywhere I go…..all whilst taking photos of course! 🙂
3 snaps each from my humble iPhone 3GS/Instagram of my beloved cities
Melbourne:
London:
You’re still my big sister, no matter where you are x.