Oakland, CA — 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.
I recall my first time visiting my sister here and harvesting kale at the farm she works at. I recall my long walks to school my freshman year of high school. I recall falling asleep on the sofa of a friend’s house — sounds of laughter and dancing from the next room.
If the future guides me away from this place, I have a million memories I can look back on fondly, as memories of home. I’m deeply grateful to have formed the connection I have to the Bay Area. It’s a wonderfully unique place, rich in culture and community. Even though I’ve only lived here for three years — barely half the amount of time I spent in Gainesville — this is the closest I’ve ever felt to a place. When I think about home when I was younger versus how it is for me now, I think the main difference is that I look forward to coming home.
To me, home is somewhere I choose to return to every single day.
Isha Smith (they/them) is a student writer and photographer living in Oakland, California.
Edited by Amber Ly