Where Did I Leave My Ruby Slippers?

Where Did I Leave My Ruby Slippers? 

Home. It’s a four letter word and yet the memories and emotions it can evoke are vast and deep. For many, home is a place of comfort. A place where you belong, a place where your worries melt away, a place where you’re protected from the (oftentimes) crazy world outside. For others, home is simply four walls and a roof over your head to protect you from the elements. And for some, home is a place from which one is trying to escape.

For me, home was always that place of comfort. No matter what happened on any given day, I knew home was a place that would always welcome me with open arms and be a soft place to land. As a child, I can vividly remember watching the scene from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy begins to click her prized pair of ruby slippers together repeating to herself over and over again, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place home.” 

As I began to get older and venture further from home on my own going on vacations with friends, leaving for college, studying abroad, I felt like I had my very own pair of ruby slippers that I could put on whenever I needed and be transported back to that place where everything was comfortable again. 

Somehow though as I began to travel more often, moved away from home (for real) for the first time, and went longer and longer without using my ruby slippers, I began to feel them slipping from my grasp. So what do you do when you’ve lost your ruby slippers? What happens when you’ve lost your sense of home? 

I’ve spent a good deal of time pondering this question lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that this feeling is simply a side effect of growing up. Just like how my perception of the once real Santa Claus has now become a fictional character whose image procures fond memories of childhood during the holidays, so too have my ruby slippers lost their magical powers to transport me back to the once magical home. 

While it’s true that home doesn’t feel quite like it used to, I’m not entirely willing to accept defeat. I refuse to believe that home will never again be that ultimate place of peace and comfort. Instead of having it provided for me though, I must now create a home for myself. Rather than trying desperately to find my childhood ruby slippers (they will most likely be too small to fit anyway), it’s time that I design my very own new pair of ruby slippers that fit just right. And knows, maybe this pair will end up being even better than the last.