I moved to my current home 10 months ago. This was a place I said I would never live and I had no desire to live. And yet, here I sit. A combination of my bad attitude towards this place being my new “home” and COVID restrictions caused me to hole up in my apartment for weeks on end and not explore this place I was living in. So a few weeks ago, when my family came to visit and asked me to show them around, a deep clean of my apartment was accompanied by frantically google searching “attractions near me” that I could pretend I had been to before. But this led me down a trail to actually discovering and exploring this place I call home.

Whether you’re arriving in a new home or you want to rediscover a place you’ve been for a while, here are some things you can do. 

1. Spruce up your physical home. Wherever you are laying your head at night, it’s time to make it homey. Suggestions include putting up pictures, rearranging furniture, or creating a reading or meditation corner.

2. Find a new walking trail or hiking path. We as humans love routine, so you might have a neighborhood or trail that you’re used to walking. It’s time to find a new one. Find a new park with a trail, walk a different neighborhood, or find a new hiking place. I highly recommend AllTrails to assist you in finding the best new trail near you. 

3. You can tell a lot about a town or city by its food. And we all love to eat. Find a new food or restaurant to try. If you’re hoping to try a new food, go to your local grocery store and pick something out that you’ve never bought before. If you want to try a new restaurant, you can use handy dandy Google to see what’s around. But to level up your experience, find a stranger and ask them what their favorite local place is! You can start a conversation and get a great recommendation. When my husband and I go visit a new place, we find a local coffee shop or hole-in-the-wall store and ask the people there where the best places to eat are. Locals always know best. 

4. Play tourist. Find a book or a blog about things to do in your city (or a neighboring city or town) and be a tourist for a day. Visit the local sites, whether you’ve been before or not.

Ultimately, it’s all about saying yes to something new. This exploration of this city I call home led me to have a better appreciation for it. When I inevitably move, at the very least I’ll be able to say I know this city I called home for a year. 

What are ways you find home in the new place you’re living?