Places | Where Are You From

Reconciling with Less Home: Between Haiti and Me

How did I come to the point of romanticizing a home I could not even identify?

I once believed Princeton was the home of the successful. Toni Morrison chose to teach students at Princeton before her teaching retirement in 2012. Michelle Obama cultivated her intelligent analysis of the world at Princeton. John Nash received his doctorate at Princeton, the only place that accepted him when everyone else thought he was crazy. People became something at Princeton. I didn’t see the people I wanted to be around me. Naturally, I thought Princeton would be a place where I would become my aspirations. But first I needed to leave home before I could get anywhere.

less home

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home challenges that narrative. Home is more than just a place where we come from, it is a part of us. And the longer we distance ourselves from home, the less complete we are.

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