 Home is where your heart is. Remembering your roots isn't that easy, but if you follow your heart and your memory, you'll always find your home. At home there's grass under my feet, or in the silky rose I grew, mulch in rose's sweet perfume, sunlight in warm spring. Those are things that make home home. So I hold on to Nani and her words, the weekly family dinners were loved, tasted better than the food ever could, even though it was made by Nani. I hold on to family stories shared at a large rectangle table that made us one. I hold on to all of them because they make me me. I hold on to them because I can always find my way home. No matter how far from home you are there will be pizza, cats, education, you can always go back. The sinking of the hill, the wild animals, bunnies, rabbits and geers. My cats in the front window, the trees, six surround my house. My home is on the hill, overlooking the valley below, flush and green in the spring and summer, orange, gold and red in the fall, snow covered in the winter, my home. I remember that the memories instated who I am, culture is part of who I am, but also a part of you. The sound of singing birds filled the morning sky, with happiness and warmth, my house is my home and my home is me. Home is memories to me when I come to the door to see the dogs wagging their tails with all the food cooking for me. My home is a happiness, a happiness that does not fall, a happiness that you can try to get rid of, a happiness that conquers it all. In my memory, in my story, in the tales I tell myself I'm walking to the bogs of distant swamp, the ones that still create plumes of smoke. In long cold days of winter we'd stand huddled by the fires, far away from adults, prying eyes. Home to me is where the tacos rain, where I travel through books, where I can be weird and silly and where the couch calls me. Playing a game of King of the Hill in Springfield, an undefeated champ, a house sits on top. On the drive known as Leatherweave, when I know all too well the stories of my life mainly reside there, it's my house. There is long black hair, pointed noses, red skin, muddled cultures clanging together like thunder and lightning.