"It all started with a mouse."

I know this blog is supposed to be about the trials and tribulations of making a career for myself but since it is summer I'll reflect on other aspects of my life that college has changed.

It is my first summer home from school and right off the bat I had a few problems adjusting to living with my family. "Well that's your problem!" says the old man. Yes living with your parents again is no fun, especially in a dysfunctional family unit like mine. When everyone lives and interacts like strangers, all with their own methods of doing things and no communication whatsoever, they get into disagreements (to put it gently). So here I am, adding another person into the mix. I've lived on my own for almost a year now without Mama and Daddy's help, without a dishwasher, without a TV, and without a toaster. Be careful when you move back in, because if your mother is like mine, you will instantly be expected to use these appliances even though you would rather not. I don't know what it is about not having a TV at school, but at home I get so irritated when it is on. I end up being driven out of the living room and barring myself in my room to avoid it.

When you get home, after it is not your home for quite sometime, it surprisingly does not feel like home anymore. Growing up I always regarded Charleston as a second home because I spend so much time there. The climate is not that different from that of my hometown. The difference for me in these two places is that one feels like home because it was home, and the other has a homey familiarity where you reside comfortably but does not have the full feeling that you belong there. This feeling has not plastered itself to my hometown as well and when I walk outside, it is Charleston. Geographically it is not, but the culture, the smells, the salty sea air is all the same. Homey and familiar, but it's not home. Home for me is Tennessee's country-side. Family is my new friends; family bonding in the basement, family day outings, family dinners and family movie nights. For the first time since I was little and blissfully ignorant, I feel like I truly belong somewhere with this group of people in this place, regardless of how much I resent the climate.

Going off to college is one of the best experiences of my life. Along with the education I adore so much (I was always one that loved school to an extent that concerned some people) I have found a touch of happiness. So in my studies to become an Imagineer I have learned this: family values (even if it is not my birth family, I love them no less), I have learned that home is with the people you love and feel most yourself with and not the little yellow house that I always had a strange attachment to for no discernible  reason. And to think that I can thank one person, one character, tracing back to the very beginning brought me to this path/pursuit to happiness. "It all started with a mouse."