''When you go back home''

I am not one to be easily offended. In fact, I think that we've all become very aware. Every joke and every comment we make is carefully curated, positioned in a way that has absolutely no potential to be taken as deragatory by whoever we're speaking to.

Political correctness or not, I love how awake the society has become through all of this. The empathy that emanates from some of us when speaking to someone coming from a minority group, or experiencing difficulties that we will never go through ourselves.

But I can't help feeling hurt when assumptions are made. It bothers me when someone assumes how I feel, who I am or where I seem to belong.

It stings, when someone asks me when I last visited ''home'' after 15 years of being an expat. Because truth to be told, I have no ''home'' in my native country. HERE is my home. Here is where I belong, where a piece of me will stay even if I choose to move somewhere else in the future.

The slightest sound of a foreign accent in conversation seems to trigger the question about home. ''Are you planning to move back home?'', ''What do you do with the dog when you visit home?'' Except I don't visit home. I see my family, meet up with a childhood friend and fly right back.

No matter how much fun I'm having at ''home'', I always am relieved to be coming back home. I feel excitement when the plane hits the ground of the airport and I know that I'll be seing my partner and precious pup in a matter of minutes. That I'll be putting on comfortable clothes and my hair will go up in a bun and that I won't have to leave for a while.

Asking me about my home is in no way malicious, and yet I can't help but feel alienated when someone poses the question.

I am home.

Comments

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