It’s the late 17th century. A French woman boards a ship destined for Quebec, part of a program to increase French power in North America. There she will marry a young Frenchman and settle in Montreal.

It’s the late 18th century. The great-grandchildren of that woman have spread themselves across Canada, assimilating into the predominantly British settlements.

It’s the late 19th century. A man arrives on Ellis Island from Sweden. He is told that his last name, “Johannsson,” is relatively common, so he changes it to “Asp,” after his favorite tree. He lives in New England for a time before marrying and moving to English-speaking Canada.

It’s the late 20th century. My parents meet in Vancouver, BC. After marrying, my father joins the US Navy and the family emigrates to the US. The Navy sends them to San Diego, California, where I’m born. We stay there three months before moving to Pensicola, Florida.

After a year there, we move again to Corpus Christi, Texas.

Another year, another move, this time to Oak Harbor, Washington.

After two years in Washington, we move to San Antonio, Texas, where my sister is born.

After another year in Texas, we move to Jacksonville, Florida.

After living in Florida for the second and final time, we move back to Oak Harbor, Washington, for another two years.

My father gets the opportunity to stop being a pilot for a while and instead do a tour on an aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The family moves to Williamsburg, Virginia.

We stay in Virginia for two years. Here we get to experience what is essentially the birthplace of the US, with Colonial Williamsburg being maintained as a time capsule of what life was like during the 17th and 18th centuries.

After two years in Virginia, my father gets accepted to the Naval War College where he will work towards a Masters degree in “Surface and Sub-Surface Naval Warfare.” We stay in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, for a year and a half.

While in Rhode Island, we get to experience more of early American history. Not only is Rhode Island full of history in and of itself, but Boston and New York are both relatively nearby. For the year and a half we stay in New England we get to explore this area and learn it’s history.

After my father’s studies were finished, we moved back to Oak Harbor, Washington, the last move the family would have to make for the Navy. At this point we’ve moved, between states, a total of nine times. If moves between homes within the same state were included, it would be more like fifteen.

Upon turning eighteen, I travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand for six months. When I came back I moved out of my family’s house and moved into my own apartment on the other side of the island. From there I moved to Bellingham, Washington. I left and travelled through Mexico for several months before returning and moving to Vancouver, BC, to attend UBC. I stayed in Vancouver until I couldn’t stand the city and it’s incredibly expensive rent and moved back to Oak Harbor for my final year of university.

I like to say I’ve moved twenty times in twenty-five years, and though I’m rounding up by one or two that’s essentially right. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced “home” in the usual sense, though I suppose I wouldn’t know if I had. I can only know what I’ve experienced, and what my experience has taught me is that home is somewhere between “what/where you choose” and “what you feel you have a connection to.”

Works Cited

Asp Family History. Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=asp. Accessed 24 Jan 2020.

Colonial Williamsburg. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/. Accessed 24 Jan 2020.

Filles du Roi. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/filles-du-roi. Accessed 24 Jan 2020.