Home Is Where the Heart Is

By Angelique “Jelly” Snyder, IWM serving in San Antonio, Texas

Maya Angelou writes, “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”  This quote currently resonates very strongly with me.  This past July I finished a year of service with FrancisCorps in Costa Rica.  Costa Rica was my home for a year and it was terribly hard to leave that home: to leave the amazing people with whom I formed meaningful friendships with, to leave the 35 kids I worked with daily, and to leave my four fellow volunteers with whom I shared every joy as well as every struggle.  Upon my arrival into the United States, I spent two weeks in Syracuse, NY, being “disoriented” followed by a few days at the house of one of my fellow volunteers.  Afterwards, I stayed in San Antonio for two days for a wedding and then began my three-week orientation for Incarnate Word Missionaries.  While my time spent in training was enjoyable, especially thanks to my fellow missionaries, I was nevertheless restless to start my job and move in to my apartment, a place I hoped to make home. 

Visitation House, my current site, is a transitional living program for homeless women with children seeking to better their lives.  While living here, women make a commitment to study or work full time. The women that I was to work with were homeless for years, living in and out of friends or families’ places as well as shelters, ever vigilant to be sure a place was safe for their children.  While feeling sorry for myself as I lived out of my suitcase and transitioned frequently, I began to think of these women.  How could I even begin to complain about the places I was staying when I was welcomed by people who genuinely and wholeheartedly cared for me and my every need? On the other hand, the Visitation House women, many of whom were victims of domestic abuse as well as unable to speak English, have undoubtedly gone through tough times; yet, they are resilient and have worked hard to improve their lives.  Feeling for an evanescent time what these women perhaps felt for years, I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  I am blessed to have a family with whom I always feel at home.  I am blessed to have made a home wherever I have lived due to hospitable people.  I am blessed that I have never been truly homeless.  I am blessed. 

I have learned that home is not simply a concrete place you go to lie your head down; rather, it is a place where one’s mind is at rest.  Home is not merely a place to eat, but where meals and conversations are shared.  Home is where you make it and with the help of my supportive community, I am making Visitation House my new home.