I have been blessed enough to have lived in one home growing up. I lived in a house with a woodland backyard and a safe neighborhood. I lived right outside a city where the people smile at strangers and everyone is friendly. The schools are generally suitable (at least, the one I graduated from.. I can’t speak for every other high school), there is a wide variety of food to choose from and you can’t beat the music scene. There is lots to do in the area, and I feel generally happy about this place.

I am describing my my external home. I really enjoy this place, and miss it as I write from another town where I attend college, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever permanently return.

Settle down now, this isn’t some, “Surprise Mom and Dad! I’m not coming home! I decided the best way for you to find out about my future plans was through my blog!”

My parents are well aware of my plans, and my feelings towards my external home. They know that I don’t believe in remaining in the same place forever, and that in order to grow I must travel. My parents know that my external home was the most wonderful place I could have ever been raised, and how much it means to me. But my parents also know that as long as I have my internal home tidied up and well-kept, that I will succeed wherever I am.

The message of day fourteen is to exist in your internal home more than your external home. You may mow the lawn, go downtown and eat pasta, and play pickup basketball in the park with your neighbors, but your external home will never be liveable until you take care of your internal home.

I have moved only once in my nineteen years, and the change of scenery and perspective helped me regain everything I thought I had lost in the moving process. The transition time was tiresome, but my house is exactly how I imagined it would be. I couldn’t have made it this way without the help of my friends and family, and they know how grateful I am for their help, advice, and strong arms. There is lots of work to be done every day, but I am aware at the end of the day that my internal house is built sturdily, elegantly, and is the only place I could ever imagine residing in.

Take a look around the spaces of your internal house, and declutter the area. Maybe you even need to move- and that’s okay too. Just know that wherever you go, you are home.

Truly yours,

Madeleine