I'm reading through the e-book Before You Get “Home”: Preparing for Reentry by Ronald L. Koteskey and ran across this definition of "Home." And it really gives a good quick example of why I feel I'm leaving home next week (even though I know mom doesn't like it when I call anywhere except their house, home). Emotionally I'm already stepping into my grief phase, but I know time will help. At least that's what the book says, haha.
"Home is where you automatically do many things.
Know whether or not a price is fair in the local currency.
Count your change in the local currency.
Cross streets automatically and safely.
Drive across town.
Bargain well for a lower price (or pay the price without question).
Hear the temperature in Celsius (Fahrenheit) and know how warm or cold it feels.
See the distance in kilometers (miles) and know how long it will take to get there on a freeway.
Carry on a conversation in the language of the host country without mentally translating in into your mother tongue.
Talk without concentrating on avoiding offensive nonverbal movements.
Hear the address of a store on a major street in your city and know about where it is.
Expect the majority of people with appointments to come a half hour late (or precisely on time).
Make last minute changes in your schedule.
Let work go to build relationships.
Accept a colleague who got the position because she or he is the member of a particular family, not the one best able to do the work.
Know others and are known by them.
Accept others and are accepted by them.
Can be yourself and allow others to be themselves.
Feel safe with others and they feel safe with you.
...Above all else, home is where things are familiar.
Familiar places: You know the layout of rooms in your home, squeaks in the floors, shrubs in the yard, fences or walls around the yard, streets in the neighborhood and thoroughfares in the city or town.
Familiar faces: You may know people intimately. Or you may know them by the roles they play, such as the clerk in the store, the yard man next door, the driver, or the children who go by your house each day on the way to school.
Familiar graces: Interactions with others are predictable, courtesies (or the lack of) are expected, tact (or the lack of) comes naturally, and mercy (or the lack of) is predictable."