I never expected a college coffee shop habit to teach me about home.
When I landed in Philadelphia after a lifetime abroad, I was desperate to belong but had no idea where to begin. How do you start over? How do you create belonging? What does it take to call a place Home? I decided to start small: I'd explore Philly through it's coffee shops.
Every Sunday, I'd travel to a new coffee shop. I'd read, write my college essays, people-watch, and when I was fully caffeinated, stroll the neighboring blocks. This Sunday ritual became Philly Immersion - part coffee diary, part love letter to Philly. Somewhere between borrowed tables and latte art throw-downs, between photo walks with other Instagrammers and runs on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Philadelphia slowly started feeling like mine.
When the pandemic hit, I lost my way. My coffee shops closed, I moved out of the city center, my creative energy disappeared, and I made the decision to take down Philly Immersion. I stopped exploring, got complacent, and stopped putting in the effort.
But some things refuse to stay buried. In an effort to come back to myself in 2024, I started a lot of healing work. After a lifetime of feeling disconnected, like pieces of me were left across the world, I slowly started to integrate and honor all the places that make me. With the healing came a resurgence of creativity: zines about my inner child and blog posts about my cross-cultural identity. And with that, came the desire to share again.
Ten years in the making and I'm finally accepting that belonging doesn't happen overnight and, like healing, it's not a linear line. Belonging comes from the conscious effort to explore, to connect, and love for a shared space. It is born from trial and error, trying new things, and even losing your way a bit. As long as you make it back home.
This space is my homecoming - to the Sunday wanderer, the coffee shop chronicler, the artist who finds home in the making. While the focus is no longer just coffee shops and I've upgraded from my phone to a film camera, Philly Immersion will always hold those first steps to belonging.