by Kym O'Leary

Home Was a Place I’d Never Been Before

by Kym O'Leary

I was on my way home from a work trip when someone asked me a simple question.

“So, where are you flying home to?”

“Launceston,” I replied.

The funny thing is, I’d never really been there before. Technically, I’d visited once as a child with Mum and Dad. But it certainly wasn’t a place I knew well enough to call home.

For context: I’d left Tasmania from Hobart. That’s where Stu, David and the van were when I flew out for work.

“Home really is where the heart is.”

While I was away, the two of them moved north to Launceston — David had been desperate to visit the planetarium. So I was flying back to a city I barely knew, to a caravan parked somewhere I’d never stayed, to the two people who make anywhere feel like home.

And without even thinking, I’d called it home.

Later, I found myself reflecting on why.

“Home really is where the heart is.”

I wasn’t flying to Launceston because that’s where our house was. We don’t have a house there. I was flying there because that’s where the people I love most in the world were waiting for me.

Four months into life on the road, home had quietly changed meaning.

Before this trip, home was easy to define. It was an address. A house. A place on a map.

Now home moves.

It’s wherever the caravan is parked.

It’s wherever the boys are.

It’s wherever we happen to be building memories together.

I think that’s one of the unexpected lessons from travelling Australia. We set out hoping to see more of the country. Instead, we’ve found ourselves questioning things we thought we already understood.

Success.
Comfort.
Space.
And now, home.

“Four months ago, I would have told you home was a place. Today, I’d tell you it’s people.

”The people you’re excited to return to. The people who make an unfamiliar place feel familiar. The people who make you answer “Launceston” without a second thought.

Four months in, home has stopped being an address.

It’s become the people I’m returning to.

Blog Text 3

“Four months ago, I would have told you home was a place. Today, I’d tell you it’s people.”

Digging into Life

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Home Was a Place I’d Never Been Before

I was on my way home from a work trip when someone asked me a simple question.

“So, where are you flying home to?”

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