YR Media’s Isha Smith moved around a lot growing up. But it wasn’t until they moved to the Bay Area when they discovered what it means to be home.
It’s a strange experience, learning how to build a home in a place you are not from.
Growing up, “home” wasn’t a word that held much meaning to me. I moved around a lot, but spent the majority of my life in Gainesville, Florida. Even though I spent years there, I never got to know the place. My idea of home was simply a container, not tethered to a specific location, or held down by any roots.
A few years and moves down the line, I found myself in Oakland, California. When I first moved here, I didn’t really know how to settle into a place or truly establish roots. Now, I’ve learned what it feels to be at home in a place, both a particular location and to the people and communities found within it. I’ve developed deep, full-bodied friendships and new closeness with my family. I find myself much closer with my sister now — with her in Berkeley and me in Oakland — than we ever were living in the same house in a different city.