There’s no place like home

My name is Jessica Thompson and I used to live in the country with my family. We have a farm and my youth is overflowing with good memories of my childhood with me, my father and my older brother riding horses, or me and my mother feeding the noisy and over-excited chickens. I loved it there when I was a child, but as I got older I started to get bores. The town was too small and the people were always the same.

When I turned eighteen, I decided to study in the city. In the beginning I was speechless. I have never been to the city before but I truly believed that I belonged there. All the fumes from the cars that pass by you in the morning, the never ending rush of people, the entering and exciting from the subway that feels like some kind of ritual. Everything about the city thrilled me.

I always came home at the weekends. My family never seemed to stop asking me if I was okay, how I was adjusting to school and the city. “Have you made some new friends?” my mother asked. I always answered with what they wanted to hear and what I believed to be true at the time: “of course mother, the people here are very nice”, “yes father, I never walk alone at night”, “yes mother I’m alright, why wouldn’t I be?”

However, I started to have a lot of work to do and I couldn’t go home every weekend anymore. That was when I really started to miss my family and the country-side. I started to miss the hot, home-made meals that my mother makes, instead of the frozen dinners in front of the TV. I missed watching movies with a cup of hot-chocolate in my hands, nestled into the sofa, covered by an old blanket and surrounded by my family. I missed helping my father feed and brush the horses.

Suddenly, the noises of the city became just noises, car fumes became just pollution, the rush of people became just stressful.

After a few more months, I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided to transfer to the college in my home town, where I finished my degree.

Now, I’m a twenty-five year-old published successful writer, working in my cozy home in the country-side, next to my family. I now realize that there’s no place like home, don’t you agree?

Raquel Silva nº35147