My Old (Northern) Kentucky Home

By Jacob Crowley 

    The concept of “home” is something every college student must grapple with at a certain point in their college career. When arriving as a wide eyed freshman on a brand new campus, home still refers to the place you are from. As you progress through the years and that huge campus from welcome week becomes smaller and smaller, you may find yourself slipping up and referring to your apartment or house on campus as your home. If others are like me, this leaves you feeling torn between the home you have cultivated on campus and the one that raised you. This definition of home was truly tested for me during the summer, as for the first time I

stayed in Louisville instead of returning to Northern Kentucky. By the end of the summer however, I was reminded of home’s true definition.

    While in years past I have returned to Northern Kentucky, because of an internship opportunity this summer, I found myself living in Louisville full time. To be completely frank, I was rather excited to be staying in Louisville. Several of my friends were staying in the city as
well as my roommates. I was ready to leave schoolwork behind and jump with both feet into summer. As the summer progressed however, I found myself making more and more trips back to NKY. Plans with my high school friends would crop up, family gatherings would take place, or errands would need to be run that called me back to Northern Kentucky.

    About halfway through the summer, one such errand appeared when I drove back to
Pendleton County to help my parents mulch. While not a fun task, my parents needed the help
since both my sisters and I now lived in other places. After a long (and hot!) morning of
mulching the garden beds in the front of the house, I ran out of mulch and took the truck to go
pick up some more for the back. After parking, I walked into the garden center and was greeted
with, “You’re a Crowley aren’t you?” from the store owner. This has never been an uncommon
question for me when home, but I had become used to the general anonymity of running errands
in Louisville. “Yes, I’m Mike’s son,” I said a little awkwardly in response. Immediately, her face
lit up and she began to talk about how my Grandpa used to work on her family’s cows when he
was a veterinarian. We then talked for ten minutes about a whole manner of things including
college at Louisville, my high school friends, and how my family was doing. When ringing me
up for the scoop of mulch, she said “I’ll give you a discount since I know ya.” After I pulled
around and she dumped the scoop in the bed, she said, “Oh... I bet you I can fit another one in
there.” Leaving the garden store with twice the amount of mulch I needed for half the price, I
was reminded why I love Northern Kentucky so much.

    While in essence this story is rather silly, in the moment it made a deep impression on
me. I now realize that while I have made incredible friends and a great community here in
Louisville, I am not ready to write off Northern Kentucky as my home. For as long as there is
still a close knit community that cares for me and my family, my true home will remain back in
Northern Kentucky.

Jacob Crowley is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the Class of 2027. He is studying history with minors in political science and Spanish.