Whenever I hear the trite phrase "home is where the heart is," I kind of laugh to myself and think about how Round Lake is a place I can't wait to move away from for good. But as I flew over Chicago today on my approach to O'Hare, I realized that home is not just the place you park your car, the town you live in, where you buy groceries, and fall asleep at night. Home is a state of mind. 

Home is me stretching across the woman sitting next to me's lap to see the skyline, something I missed a lot over the past five days. Home is walking to the fridge and seeing that we have water in pitchers, and thankfully pouring myself an ice cold glass of water. Home is knowing that in the end, things will probably work out. 

Home, to me is something I cannot wait to establish. Home is something that I will only find in Chicago. Maybe it's because it is the only place I have come to know, but I truly cannot see myself anywhere else but here.

I find myself visiting new places and seeing aesthetics I hope to one day include in the place I come home to at the end of the day. I see people and things and I cannot wait to have a part of that, however big or small it is. I see a color and know that that exact color is what I want painted on my bathroom walls. I see a man lovingly look at a woman and know that I want something like that. I see a cookbook and think about the thousands of other books I own and think about if I would like built in bookshelves. Am I thinking too far in the future? Absolutely not, because right along with thinking of my preferences of linoleum or wood floors, I'm not thinking of the floor I'm about to spill my drink on. I'm not thinking about how nice the fridge I'm opening is (how it has the freezer on one side and the fridge on the other, something I've always wanted), I'm more focused on the fact that there has got to be another frozen pizza in there somewhere. I'm not fixated on the grill my burger is currently cooking on and how it is built into the deck, I'm just wondering where the ketchup is. 

So while I'm busy living my life, I occasionally wonder when it's going to get started.. but oh wait, it already has.