sick and nostalgic and college options

I am still sick - and due to my unhappy lungs I'm not really spending much time out of the house... therefore there is very little to report here. It's kind of bites being, or at least, feeling, cooped up - and for some reason it's made me a bit... let's say nostalgic. Not homesick, not sad, but more like missing moments and not just moments and people but potential for moments... being here means that I'm not developing relationships back there with people who matter to me. I'm not growing myself in my home environment - and the longer I'm here I find the more often I refer to California as "home" but the less it feels like home to me.

But it's about more than me - and this has been bugging me a bit more, lately. I'm a Mom (if you didn't already know that then you should probably reconsider why you're still reading my personal disclosures). My kid is nearing the end of secondary school and giving considerable thought as to her college options. Our home base right now is here, in Europe, but this is not our home. It may seem rather obvious to you, but I've only recently realized that by taking her over here I've deprived her of the hometown high school experience. Sure, she's gaining a lot more by virtue of being here, but she will not have the same connection to our hometown as her peers - she won't have those high school friends to hang out with during her college breaks. She won't have that same appeal to move back to our old area and be close to family. I don't know where I'll be just then, but I'm slowly realizing that by moving here I've broken the cohesion. I don't know if her our extended family and her father's family will be enough for our old community to still feel like home to her - I do know that she prefers the city structure to our town, and for that I don't blame her.

At this point, we're talking about viewing some colleges she's interested over the summer. She's interested in the UC system and we should check out some state schools too. I'm hoping to find a fit in the North Bay so that she can continue to develop a dynamic that will further cement her affiliation with our hometown - not so that she's rooted there, but so she's able to explore her home-base again and reconnect with friends and family.