"Home, home in the frozen tundra that is Wisconsin," or "A lot of unanswered questions"

It's official.

I am a Wisconsinite. Or Wisconsonian. Or Wisconsiner. (Whatever.) I have a Wisconsin driver license and license plates. I have figured out what a frontage road is (silly Wisconsin roads), and I like cheese. Yessss. I got it down, pat.

I've not been an "official" resident of any other state but Ohio since 1993, when I hailed from Kentucky. Northern Kentucky. In an area they call "Greater Cincinnati." I'm NOT talking Appalachia, here.

We're getting off track. Point is, my whole center-of-my-universe has shifted. Where is my home?

Wisconsin is my new residence. Oddly enough, or perhaps this is normal and it just feels strange to me, it doesn't feel like home yet. I haven't had the sense of "home" since I was in high school, living at "home." When people ask me where I'm from now, where am I supposed to say? Ohio? Wisconsin? Anyone?

How long do I wait before I can tell people I'm from Wisconsin? I'm not a fan of the over-explanations. "Where are you from?"
"Well, Ohio, originally, but I moved to Kentucky for seven years, then back to Ohio for 12, then to Michigan for six lousy months, then to Wisconsin..." It's supposed to be small talk. It's not a life story. So when can I drop the backstory? When do I tell people I'm a ... uh, whatever Wisconsin people are, instead of a Buckeye?

When does that warm, cozy sense of home sink in? You know, the one that makes you feel like your home belongs to you and whoever you're living with, and you can put your dirty clothes in a pile and have them be just that -- dirty clothes -- and not like, another reminder that you (or your fiance) are the only ones in the whole world who will wash that pile of dirty clothes. Boy, the world is a scary, lonely place. Ha.

Do you have to live in a place a certain number of years for that sense of home to hit, or is that something you just "know"? Or, sadder yet, is that cozy sense of home just a place we thought we had, but was actually just an illusion?

I'd like to think Wisconsin will start to feel like home soon. I plan on sticking around a while. I'll be married soon. I'll get a dog soon. I hope I won't be renting that much longer. Then will it feel like home, when it's ours, and not a landlord's?

So many questions. So few answers.

I hope this isn't something that adults spend their whole lives chasing -- that sense of belonging. I belong here because I am making myself belong here, and I'm happy here. But I have no strong emotional attachment to Wisconsin yet. A little attachment. But not a big one. I'd defend Wisconsin on the playground, but when push came to shove, I'd be hiding behind Ohio's back all day.

Give me time. I think it's time I need. (Or is it?)

I have an $18 license that says I already look like a Wisconsonian. Wisconsinizen. Wisconsinun. Whatever. I have an $18 license that says "hey, kid, you live here." Here in Wisconsin.