STOML.

I have lived in five countries in my short twenty-two years of life:

United States of America.
Australia.
New Zealand.
England.
Vietnam.

Home-sick reaches an all new level when your family is spread across four different countries. My trips home can cost more than a semester at University. I don't have many child-hood friends and I don't have a bedroom covered in 90's pop-star posters. My belongings are complied in a plastic container, stored under a bed that has been placed in seven different bedrooms. I have attended four different schools and have multiple international sim cards. My best friends are my family and our family dog has seen more travel than some people will in a life time. I have two passports and have the customs routine down pat - walk fast and learn the art of 'weaving'.

'Is that an accent I detect?'

No, it is just something I like to put on to make myself appear to be more interesting.

Put my brothers and sister in the same room and your mind will be boggled with the voices that surround you. We each live in different countries, two of us born in another from the others. Most of us are happy to expose our duality in citizenship, yet some of us decide to affiliate ourselves with just the one. It is funny how important your passport actually becomes. Without it you would be stuck - who would want that? I don't think I have spent more than six weeks in more than one place in the last year. It can get tiring, that is for sure. There is a point where you want it to stop, but you are afraid of the kind of levels of crazy you will become once you settle down.

A well travelled pup. 

Family time usually just comes once - Christmas. Twice in a year is a treat. Under one roof is a miracle, even if it is only for a short period of time. Where to meet is the question. Where is home? Don't bother asking. You know the saying, 'home is where the heart is'? The true essence of that phrase only applies to those who move around a lot. Those who can look at pages like this and laugh at how much you can relate. You come to realize how small the world actually is, and how important things like Facebook actually are. You develop a preference of airlines and know an airline bargain when you see one. The value of your air points membership far surpasses your bank account (at my age that is). Majority of your friends will never spend the night, let alone meet the rest of the clan - for that would be one expensive meet and greet.

It's not sad though, it's happy - because those who travel never stay in one place for long and are always bound to come back. Home might be where the heart is but nobody ever said you have to leave your heart in just one place.

-C.