Home is where the Hailey’s are

I’ve never been the type of person to attach the word “home” to the four confining walls of a building. 

Of course, I love being home in Charlotte, but the joy I get from being home comes from the people who occupy the house. At my home in Charlotte, I live with my parents, two sisters and grandmother. My grandmother moved in with us in March, and my older sister was at home working before she decided to go to graduate school this semester.

Through many changes, I’ve always lived in a full house. When my older sister was entering her freshman year of college, my twin sister Kaycee and I were starting high school. Even with one child out of the house, my parents still had two kids under their roof.

When it was time for Kaycee and I to decide what schools we would be attending for undergrad, we ended up going to rival schools.

That’s right. I’m a Tar Heel, and she’s a Blue Devil.

Everyone would always talk about how our house would be “divided” for the next four years, but it never felt like that. Somehow going to separate schools and being away from each other for the first time in our lives made us closer than ever. When we would visit one another, it felt just like old times. All of the talk about “rivalry” went out the window, and I was able to just talk to my sister.

I remember when I had an extremely rough day during my first semester at UNC, and the first thing I did when I got back to my room was call my mom. She said she wanted to come to campus and make sure I was okay. Of course, I knew she couldn’t do that, but then a thought came to mind. I could go to Duke and see my sister. She was the closest piece of home I had with me while I was in school.

That night made me realize something: Home is more than just my house in Charlotte. It’s calling my twin sister when I’m up past midnight doing work and need somebody to keep me company. It’s texting my older sister when she asks me for suggestions on what television show to watch next. It’s my mom coming from Charlotte to celebrate my birthday with me and then buying me groceries before I went back to my apartment. It’s my dad driving up to Chapel Hill just to bring me a birthday present because I wasn’t at home for my birthday. It’s me FaceTiming my grandmother while she’s watching Family Feud during weeknights. To me, home means family. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Chapel Hill, Kaycee’s in Durham, my older sister’s in Raleigh or my parents are in Charlotte because for me home will always be where the Hailey’s are.