'Home'sick?

When I talk to people back in the US of A, I often get asked if I'm homesick, but as a card-carrying TCK (well, I would be if they had membership cards for such a thing...maybe I need to make one!) asking me if I'm homesick implies that I have a singular home to be 'sick' for.

When you ask me if I'm homesick, do you mean that I miss Auburn?  Or Spring Arbor?  Or Kijabe?  Or Addis?  Or Yakima? Or Kibogora?

Are you talking about the house on 244th street?  Or the one where my parents live? Or the one in which I last lived in the States?  Or the one in Rwanda where I first remember going through a closet looking for treasures? 

Are your referring to a single building?  A city as a whole?  A country/state?  A group of people?  A job?

Asking me if I'm 'homesick' is apparently just as confusing as asking me where I'm from.  Both questions will have varying answers depending on how I feel, the weather, my level of fatigue, or the conversations I've already had that day.  Both questions are loaded with emotions.  Ugh.

I'm not homesick right now, because I am at home.  This is my 'home' now.  I love it.  I enjoy exploring it.  It is where I'm supposed to be.  Yes, I'm frustrated by the language and my lack of skill in it.  Yes, I miss certain foods/restaurants/drinks/places.  Yes, I'm still a stranger here to 10+ million people.  Yes, I get sad.  But I don't have one 'home' to be 'sick' for, and so being 'homesick' isn't quite right.

Maybe I should start saying that I'm 'peoplesick'.  Not sick of people, but homesick for people.  What I wouldn't give to go drink chai with the Fab-5, or to watch a sunset with Mattie, or go to Kaldi's with Sano, or sit in the living room enjoying the fire with my parents, or go to the Space Needle with Alli, or scour the redboxes in town with Sarah, or sit around a bonfire with the guys.  I'm missing all of those things, but they all happen in different settings with different people near a different place that I call home.

And so, as I sit here, I hope that you are well and not to peoplesick/homesick, whoever you are and whatever our interactions have been over the years.  Thank you for the memories, and let's make some more the next time we're in the same zip code/time zone.

Location: Chengdu, China

Local Time (CST -- GMT+8): 9:48 p.m. (9/15/2012)

Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 6:48 a.m. (9/15/2012)