Can you have two homes?

For me college has been a roller coaster ride. Freshman year I attended West Virginia University, while I enjoyed my time there it never once felt like home. After a year at West Virginia I transferred to Rutgers. I lived off campus my sophomore year and still live in that same house my junior year. I also have the house lease signed for the following year. So for me despite the fact that I spent eighteen or so years at my house in Lodi, New Jersey and that is definitely home, I struggle when I get the feeling of home when I am at Rutgers. Being in New Brunswick does not feel like I am away from home. There is some obvious differences to my real home and New Brunswick being that in Lodi I live with my parents, dog and sister. At Rutgers I live with three of my good friends. 

I know I am different then a lot of people here at Rutgers...I can name one person I know who has lived in the same spot three years of their college career, but I think that is part of the reason why I feel like Rutgers is home. Not having to move my stuff after each year. Being able to cook in the same kitchen, consistently bringing new things to make the house better each year. By no means is the house half the house I have in Lodi, but something about it being my house makes this special. Makes me realize how much I will miss waking to chilly house because our heat sometimes tends to fail us, my door drifting open if not closed properly or how our mirror stays foggy forever after a shower. For these three years I have spent exponentially more time in this house, then I did at Lodi so why should I not call this home. 

Sure, I go home to Lodi and say I am going home. Sleep in my room that I have slept in since before I could remember, eat my Mom's cooking, and still battle to eat all the Stella Dora cookies before the rest of the family... my heart knows this is home. Coming down the stairs to my dog greeting me will never get old. Waking up to late and seeing the family throwing you stares, some even might disappointed stares. My Dad cracking a wise joke about my sleeping habits and me laughing about it. The point is it is really tough to compare these places. My mind tells me New Brunswick is home, I mean it makes sense right all my clothes are there, basically everything I own and I spend all my time there. But, I go to Lodi and my heart tells me this is home. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it really is okay to accept two places as home. When I graduate and move out of my little house in New Brunswick and back into my house in Lodi, a new period of life will start. Lodi will be my home in heart and mind. New Brunswick will just be a memory.