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Finding Home
We head out of the restaurant towards the tramway and pick up where we left off:
“Finding home has been a lifelong preoccupation of mine. As you suggested, it has plenty to do with one’s community, friends, and family. But the reality is, for so many of us, we’re in movement, we don’t stay in our city/country of origin. I have changed countries a few times, as you have. What are we looking for? Job stability? A partner? Whatever, people migrate.”
“We certainly do. I’ve moved and settled and resettled so many times, I have 3 nationalities; I’d have 4 if the laws of the country where I was born allowed for citizenship by land right. But I’m not sure what it is I’m looking for. I don’t know how to express it in so many words. I just know that I’m restless and that this feels temporary. Though I have no idea where I want to go next or why, nor if I will ever go back — trying to avoid acknowledging that there might be nothing to go back to anyway.”
“So how do you finally feel comfortable?”
“I think for me, I’d need my family and friends around.”
“It is truly a matter of having friends nearby — of course, having both friends and family is ideal. Me, for several reasons, I never felt quite at ease in Los Angeles, despite being born and having family and friends there. I’ve always been more comfortable in Europe, for instance…
