A Room Full of My Safest Sounds (Kelsey Shoemaker)

I once heard a song that said, “Home is just a room full of my safest sounds” (“Talk Me Down” by Troye Sivan). And it struck me.

Going abroad means that I’ve left my hometown in Michigan once more; I’ve left the familiar in exchange for a landscape that I’ve never touched down on before. And that can be scary. But these lyrics remind me that home has never been just about a structure that you’ve lived in for a long time. It’s about the memories you make in those places and the things that make you feel safe and sound wherever you are.

I’ve made my home in Zeeland, Michigan. I’ve made my home on the mountaintops of Israel. Grand Rapids has been my home too, in the dorms I’ve lived in. Saint Mary, Montana in Glacier National Park is another place I’ve been lucky enough to call home, and now York is becoming another home on my list. There are certain places within the city that I’ve grown accustomed to going to and wandering through, and I thought it would be fun to share them with you.

These are my homes in York. Where are yours?

This is my first home. I had seen pictures of York St. John University before I arrived, but I had no idea what it would feel like to be at the university in person, and I certainly wasn’t prepared for what the flats looked like. I remember walking into Cruse 9 on my first day here and gasping aloud when I saw the inside. I had gone through my front door expecting something far too glamorous for my college budget to sustain, and what I got instead was a small room on the second floor with a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a sink that spits out icy water or water so hot it’ll melt the skin right off your hand.

But it’s really not so bad. Sure, sometimes it smells weird or I wake up with a cramped neck because of the bed, but it’s home now. See the bottles behind me? Those are filled with flowers I got from the market, and the bottles are from game nights with friends where we’ve sat in my kitchen playing cards. My photos are hanging on the walls, and my makeup is scattered across my desk just as it would be back in Michigan. (There’s even a box of cereal in my room, which is how you know I’ve made somewhere home: if there’s food, I’m staying.) Even the uni itself has become home. I have places on campus where I like to hole up and get work done, and I’m finally finding my way around campus with ease. Both my flat and uni are places I don’t spend the majority of my time in, but they’re both comforting places to come back to after a long day out in the city.

The next home I’ve found here is the coffee shops. I’m an absolute coffee fanatic, and finding a good cappuccino here was one of my main goals (one of the other goals included finding a good pain au chocolat, which I don’t think will be too hard).

I love the atmosphere of coffee shops: they’re busy but relaxed at the same time. They’re the perfect place for me to get some work done and get caffeinated at the same time, and there are quite a few that I love. Coffee Culture is amazing, and so are Gatehouse Coffee, Brew and Brownie, and Lucky Day (just to name a few!).

Here’s the final place I’ll share with you that I’ve called home. It’s the Shambles Market! It’s such a random place to call home, especially since it doesn’t even technically have four walls and a roof over the top. But I love the vibrancy of the place. There are vendors selling all kinds of things from flowers (my personal favorite) to donuts to vegetables to handbags, and the food trucks here are absolutely incredible.

This was the first place I truly fell in love with in York, and I visited it twice within the first day and a half of touching down in this country. I’ve always loved farmers’ markets back in Michigan, and I think the Shambles Market gave me just a little taste of something familiar, but with a fresh twist. I love the smells, the colors, and the busy nature of it all, and the fact that local business owners sell their wares here makes it even better. It’s definitely a place that I will go back to time and time again.

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Those are the places I’ve been lucky enough to find here that I can call home. But home isn’t just about the places you go. It’s also about the people you’re with, and I’m blessed enough to be exploring this city with a group of people who make me laugh and challenge me to try new things.

I hope to find even more places to call home this semester, and you can follow along on my journey by visiting my York travel blog: https://frommittentobritain.weebly.com

Happy trails,