To take root: to fix oneself, to establish oneself in a place. Said especially of a passion: to assert or take root. / Set of antecedents, interests, habits or affections that make something firm and stable or that bind someone to a place.

What you see are the definitions offered by the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (some of them). Take roots or rooting are words that have among their meanings that of being linked to places or people. At the base are strong emotions of belonging.

On a personal level, I have always believed that I was a citizen of the world (as stupid as it may sound) without further pretensions, a wanderer who likes to travel, someone who did not feel particularly rooted to any particular place, because I love to live in different places and cities, because I am crazy about the possibility of traveling the world and meet other people and cultures. And although I have a home in a specific place, I would not mind taking a flight tomorrow and go to other places. Traveling is an incredible adventure.

However, for some unknown reason, during my last visit to Salamanca, my hometown, I felt such a strong sense of rootedness that I even got excited at times. Strolling through its streets that are authentic hotbeds of life, soaking up the atmosphere of such a cheerful city and walking the same paths that I followed, for example, when I studied at the university. All seemingly harmless sensations but that put on alert each of my nerve endings ready to make me aware of what I was feeling at every moment. I guess nostalgia invades you when you least expect it, it sneaks under your skin and sails through your bloodstream until it reaches the last millimeter of your being.

In addition, the pandemic means that, on the one hand, we are sensitive and, on the other hand, we have to go through somewhat different experiences. In my case, since all this started, I sleep in hotels in the city, which is a strange feeling, as if you were a guest in your own home, just another tourist. There is no doubt that my city (yes, mine, because I belong there in the sense that we are talking about in this entry, even though I would never have said so before and even though I will probably never live there again because life has led me on other paths) is a beautiful place, with a charm like few others, emanating culture from every corner.

I realized that I was fooling myself, because whether we like it or not, we are emotional beings that are linked to places and people that make up our history and define us as unique and unrepeatable human beings.

How about you? Do you feel rooted somewhere?

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