“I hadn’t really thought that much about home or the feeling of home in general, because I’ve always been a pretty ambitious person who wanted to get as far away from rural Montana as possible when I was younger, and everything was kind of built on the traditional ideas of success. And I think the pandemic has really helped me to take a step back and reevaluate my own values and what is important, that finding a sense of home—finding a sense of security and stability—is something that is really important to me and important for me living a healthy, happy life. And I don’t think I would have realized that without this global pause button on everything that I had thought I would be doing.”
Milou is a recent college grad and a friend of the interviewer’s. At the start of 2020, she was teaching English in Latvia; in the ensuing year she moved back to her childhood home in Bozeman, Montana and later began working from home at a civil legal aid non-profit. Throughout this process, Milou learned that for her, home is often a feeling more than a physical place. It exists in memories, in relationships with others, and especially in one’s sense of self.
In this interview, Milou talks about the process of interrupting, rediscovering, and reinterpreting home during the pandemic.
Milou is interviewed by Sophie Penniman.