Everyone has a certain place they can’t stop thinking about. For some, it’s a tropical island in the Caribbean, for others, a quaint town in Europe, or a city in the U.S. holds special meaning. Regardless, having a place besides home that has value is part of the human experience.
For most of my life, my place was the Outer Banks (OBX) in North Carolina. Every year, my family and I would vacation there to visit family and friends, staying for a couple of weeks at a time. It always surprised me how much more alive the town felt in the summer than in the winter.
This past weekend, I visited Martha’s Vineyard. I was shocked at how different the island was from the beaches I was used to, but surprised at how similar the culture was.
We visited on the last day of the season, which made the island feel so quiet and empty. I kept thinking back to OBX during the winter. Different place, same feeling. It made me wonder about the strange culture attached to places most people visit only during a certain time of year.
Why do we feel the need to enjoy a location knowing that there’s a significant part of the year when we won’t return? What does it feel like to live somewhere that completely transforms after a certain day in the fall?
In my short time at Martha’s Vineyard, I thought back to my summer trips to OBX. It made me consider the temporary community created by seasonal residents and visitors and how they made the place so special.
Thinking about visiting one of these places again made me think about how our lives are also seasonal. Our identities in the fall can change by spring, but having a constant point of orientation during the summer gives us a place to always return to. The temporary nature of these places makes our connection to them more profound.
In the summer, I will return to OBX knowing that I will have to leave again. I think that is why it’s been my place for so long: it’s familiar enough to feel permanent, but temporary enough to let me grow in the offseason.
Some places become home not because we stay, but because we can return.
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