Erica Wong, Pi Class
“My sense of home was a place of familiarity. Just being comfortable with that. I never knew anything else. And when it happened, things weren't the same. It changed what I thought of home. It made me realize that when something sudden like this happens, there's no preparation and no goodbye. I was very afraid of coming here. I thought I was coming for the wrong reasons. I thought I needed to run away from all these problems in my last year at home. But I think I was actually able to work through all that and learn from everything and heal before I came here. I think that really helped me to adjust. I wasn't running away from my problems, I was actually learning from them. Being able to take those lessons and keep them with me. I didn't come to run away. I came because I wanted to learn more. And I think that's a key reason why I'm so happy here. Now, I think home is really what you make of it. Your attachments to a place. Multiple places can be your home at the same time. Realizing that home is not really permanent kind of helped me come all the way out here. And made it easier to call Santa Barbara my home. I feel comfortable calling Santa Barbara my new home. I feel very connected here already. A lot of people thought I'm a lot happier, which I definitely am.” - Erica Wong, Pi Class | Humans of Psi