Where do you consider "home"?

No prizes for guessing my answer!    Many of you know exactly what I'm about to say...

Scotland is definitely home.  I have lived here for almost my entire adult life...moved here when I was 23, and I will be 54 this year.  Somewhere in the middle there, I also had 4 years in London.

My parents no longer live in the town, or even the state where I grew up, so going to visit them is not 'going home'.  When my lovely parents eventually shuffle off their mortal coils, I will never go back to the USA again, not even for a holiday.  I have no love or patriotic feeling for the place.  If I'm honest, I actually feel embarrassed when I have to admit to being an  American; like if someone asks about my weird mish-mash accent. 

My British passport is truly my most treasured possession! 

 

I wonder what would happen if you asked a bunch of Americans living in America the same question?  I bet you'd get the same answer, a lot of people feel a little lost. 

I often wonder what it's like to live in the town you grew up in and still hang out with your friends from high school.  Do they feel a little lost as well?

I grew up in a factory town where people seem to be born, get a job in a factory and stay til they die...  I never really fit in growing up and no one there quite understands wanting to live all over the world...

I can't imagine staying in one place forever...

I have to join the group of people who refer to both places as home.  I still refer to Ohio as home in conversation.  If I am taking a vacation to go back to the US, I will say to people that I am 'going home' or I will say 'back home' if talking about the US.  NE Ohio will always feel like home to me because it is where I was born and raised.  That being said, my parents moved last year from the house we had built and lived in for 14 years.  Going 'home' for Christmas was more like going to my parents' for Christmas.  I was surprised how comfortable I felt there despite it feeling very much like someone else's house, but it no longer feels like I am going back to my house.  We would like to move back to the US in a few years because it is so hard to be away from my family but may pick a new area that works better for the husband and myself as well as my brother.  Who knows where our kids will end up- that will probably become home!

Despite Ohio always being home, I do also feel at home in England.  I have only been here for a few years but I do feel more comfortable here.  Plus, I didn't really live an adult life in the US.  I worked part-time, lived with my parents, used their health insurance, and drove their car from when I graduated university to when I moved to the UK.  I have my own life over here which I maintain myself so I do feel like this is home now.  I will probably end up like my husband's aunt.  She's lived in Italy since the 1950s but still considers herself impossibly British!  Could be worse.

Omg omg!!! Ohio representing. I lived a large portion of my life there......north east Ohio, geauga and summit county mainly!!! Before that, Manassas Virginia, after Ohio, Indiana and New York City!! Most of my mother's side of the fault still live in montville, Chardon, chesterland, Cuyahoga falls.

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Erie County in the house  Most of my family is based in northern OH, though I have other family spread out all over the country; Florida, Texas, Michigan and California.

Erie County in the house  Most of my family is based in northern OH, though I have other family spread out all over the country; Florida, Texas, Michigan and California.

I've got Florida, Arizona's, Nevada, California, Oregon, Alaska, Kentucky, Nebraska (fathers side all military.....They stay put where they like)

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  Plus, I didn't really live an adult life in the US.  I worked part-time, lived with my parents, used their health insurance, and drove their car from when I graduated university to when I moved to the UK.  I have my own life over here which I maintain myself so I do feel like this is home now.

I think this is an interesting point, and one that probably rings true in my life too... I (foolishly) got married a week before my 18th birthday, so I went from being under my parents wing/control, to being under a husband's wing/control, and never really tasted freedom or had a life of my own until I came here.

You have 3 passports, I am incredibly jealous. If I could obtain citizenship and keep my US citizenship I would be so happy. The more the merrier =D

You can keep your US citizenship if you gain UK citizenship... the issue would be how you could qualify for UK citizenship, since you have to live in the UK on qualifying visas for at least 5 continuous years to become a UK citizen.


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Omg omg!!! Ohio representing. I lived a large portion of my life there......north east Ohio, geauga and summit county mainly!!! Before that, Manassas Virginia, after Ohio, Indiana and New York City!! Most of my mother's side of the fault still live in montville, Chardon, chesterland, Cuyahoga falls.

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I was born in C-Falls!

Erie County in the house  Most of my family is based in northern OH, though I have other family spread out all over the country; Florida, Texas, Michigan and California.

Stark County for me!  Most of my family is in Mahoning/Geauga/Summit but I have some family in NYC and some in Chicago.  We were all up on the latest immigration trends until the early 1800s when we got to Ohio and set up camp.

You have 3 passports, I am incredibly jealous. If I could obtain citizenship and keep my US citizenship I would be so happy. The more the merrier =D

That's sort of how I feel about the whole thing... Lucky as anything!  It also lets me join the shortest lines entering Canada, the US and the EU... 

Good question to ask me this week - American by birth, in Asia these past six years and a few days away from returning to London, where we have a home and lived happily for seven years. I will say London as we are happy to go back there but neither of us is from there so it will never be 100%


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I'm not in the UK yet, but I've been an expat for most of my adult life (just in a different country). I've also lived in a few different states in the US. Most of my family live very close to where they grew up. I envy them in some way, but most of them turned their backs on me for various reasons.

My home is where my loved one is...I'm lucky enough to move over into a built-in family (stepkids, stepdog, house, job in the family business). It will take a while to adjust, but I feel like I'm going home for the first time in my life.

But I'm trying to get sun and eat beef hot dogs and Mexican food as much as I can now (before I leave the US). I wish I knew what else "American" to soak up before I go. I don't see myself ever coming back to the US except perhaps for a visit now and then.

Late to this thread, but I'm another person that uses the term "going home" when travelling to both the US and the UK. When I'm going back to the US for a visit, I will tell friends/coworkers that I'm "going home"for a visit and telling friends in the US that I'm "coming home" soon...but once I'm back in the US and texting friends from here I'm usually saying "I'll be home on xyz date" or "I miss my doggo, I can't wait to head home as much as I love the visit!".

I don't think - for expats at least (in my experience anyways) - it's as black and white as having one "home". At least not all the time. Some of us, like myself, go back to their home country every year for a visit so it's not like one just becomes more of a home than another as I have so many ties to both places. That's just my 2p.

This is a really good question. I was born in California, but grew up in Florida, a year and a half in Washington State, and Arizona. I also lived in France for 2 years. When people in the UK say, "ooooh you have an interesting accent, where are you from?!" I pause longer than I should because I know "Coventry" isn't the answer they're looking for, and I generally say California, or that I was born in California but moved here from Arizona. When I visit the US, I have to visit WA, AZ, and SoCal to see all of my closest friends and family. Of the places in the US that I visit, I would probably consider AZ to be the most "home" because I lived there for 20+ years, but I've always been proud of being a California girl! But when I lived in the US and would visit my mom, I always found myself saying I was going "home" to see my mom, even though I haven't lived with my mom for 20 years, and never lived with her in the house where she lives now.

However, home is also now where my husband, kids, and yes, adorable cat live...so my home is also in Coventry!

I guess I have two homes...one here in Cov, and one in the general Western part of the US! I do want to go back to the US someday though, so I think I'd be fine calling either place "home".