There's No Place Like Home

I’ve had too much travel time this week, either on a bus around Kangaroo Island or on a plane to Japan. My mind wanders during my free time and what you read next is the consequence of that.

If you remember, last week I mentioned how Australia was the farthest place I had ever been from home, yet was also the place that reminded me the most of home. From that inference, I’ve been thinking a lot about what home is. There are the typical idioms that you hear, home is where the heart is, a house is not a home, home is where you hang your hat, there’s no place like home…you get it.

Is home a place? Is home a feeling? Is home where your people are? For me, I have always considered Houston home. It’s where I was raised, it’s where my family is, heck it’s where I’ve spent the majority of my life, surely that must be home. But, I’ve also started to consider the UK home. I have no roots there, but I feel like I’ve truly come into myself there in many ways. Could that be home? Oddly enough, Denver never really felt like home. I felt more like a nomad with no place to hang my hat during that two-year stint, but I think that was a consequence of Covid and lacking a sense of purpose and direction professionally. 

There’s something known as the Overview Effect in the aerospace world. It’s a term coined for astronauts who have returned to Earth and had a chance to see the planet we call home from above. If you ever have the opportunity to talk with an astronaut, I highly recommend asking them about this. Lots comment on seeing the atmosphere from above, how thin and fragile it is, and note that if you look down on Earth there are no borders, it’s just one precious marble that we all live on. These fortunate humans often come back changed and with a fresh perspective on the Earth and have a new appreciation for it. Over the years in the STEM outreach I’ve done, this has been something I’ve commented on and usually added a sassy little comment inferring that it shouldn’t take people leaving the planet to recognize this…but as someone who hasn’t had a chance to see the Earth from above, I think I finally have a better understanding of that so called overview effect.

While walking through the streets of Sydney I couldn’t help but think of home, Houston. While I haven’t visited Downtown H-Town since before Covid, there were lots of similarities in the building structure and design (albeit, there were way more people walking around in Sydney). The few days spent in Melbourne were reminiscent of Denver to me and Nashville to Lina. A smaller, yet more artsy city, with a laid back vibe.

Landing in Adelaide, I was immediately reminded of California. It was warm there with small mountains in the background, but with a coast very close by. As we were being driven across Kangaroo Island, I immediately was transported back to Tanzania - the terrain was so similar, even though I watched kangaroos go by instead of giraffes. 

Perhaps we put too much weight on the word home. I’ve spent the last two weeks feeling like I’ve been in an alternate reality because my brain has struggled to comprehend how something so different can feel so familiar. 

Is this a less exciting version of the overview effect? 

If we didn’t know where we were, would we be able to find comfort and build a home anywhere? Are we perhaps all more similar than anyone wants us to think? We all have come from different homes and were raised differently, but at the end of the day, I’m starting to think we have more in common than we perhaps want to acknowledge at first glance.

I fear that my explanation is lacking here and that this is sounding more like a Miss America speech advocating for world peace (which would be great, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon). In a time where my world, and perhaps others, feels very up in the air (still looking at you, job rejection letters), there is a comfort for me in this realization. 

I have a fabulous home base in Houston. Bless my parents, they are always there for me and will even pick up the phone at 4am if I call while I’m sick on the other side of the globe. I am lucky to have that. Maybe it’s that strong base that makes it easier to see home in many different physical locations. At the end of the day, we’re all sharing a home, this big, beautiful, blue marble. 

So all this rambling to say, I still can’t quite put a finger on what home is, but maybe, home can just be wherever you are?

The title this week is also fitting because the cool kids also call Australia, Oz. So as Dorthy says, there’s no place like home.

What a week this was. We flew to Adelaide on Monday and hit the ground running. We had multiple meetings a day throughout the week. I’m still stunned that we had the opportunity to talk with as many incredible people as we did in the aerospace industry in Oz.

We met with the Deloitte Space Australian counterpart, folks at the Australian Space Agency, the Ministry of Defence, the Space Discovery Centre team, CyberOps, incubators, and the list goes on. It was so refreshing to see how generous people were with their time. I used to think the US space industry was tiny and well-connected, but Australia’s got us beat. Everyone knows everyone here.

 

 

We made sure to book a fun day in the week and did a day-long excursion to Kangaroo Island. In January 2020 the whole island was on fire, but it was surprising to see how much has grown back in two and half years. We got to meet some local birds, Lina even held an owl! We visited a eucalyptus farm, and bee farm, and a winery too, all while taking in the beautiful scenery and seeing some dolphins, kangaroos, and koalas along the way. 

 

 

Our last afternoon in Adelaide took us to Cleland Wildlife Park, per our host's suggestion. We walk in and there were just kangaroos straight chilling everywhere. No fence or barricade between the humans and the animals. WILD. We got to see the koalas and kangaroos up close and personal. Thanks to Lina for the great video!

The weekend brought an early flight to Japan, somehow we managed to pick an airline that did not give out food or drink on a 7-hour flight…but we survived.

Spent the night in Osaka and then met up with the group on Sunday morning! Two of our lovely tour guides, Teru and Ryo took us around Osaka and kept us well-fed while sharing the history of the city.

 

 

 

Quick shoutout to my favorite space people who are all together at one of my favorite space events of the year. The FOMO is real, y'all are having too much fun without me ;)

All this talk of home has definitely made me a little homesick, in so many unexpected ways. I know more so now than ever before, how fortunate I am to have the chance to travel to all these amazing places. But there truly is no place like home…whether that’s where your hat is, your heart is, or your people are.