In early October 1989 I got on a train in London and stepped off later that day in Glasgow. As my foot touched the platform I got a feeling a bit like a mild electric shock running through me. In my mind rang the words “I’m home”. I’d only ever spent a few hours here once before and not felt that sense of connection then but this time was different. I was arriving in Glasgow for Fresher’s week at the University of Glasgow.
Twenty years later I work at the University of Glasgow as an administrator and I have done so since 1997. I still have lunch in the Glasgow University Union and I still walk in Kelvingrove park. I no longer live in the west end of Glasgow but I did for many years and the area is full of memories for me.
I pass places that look quite different to when I first came here and others that have barely changed. There are places where I have lunched with close freinds, places I’ve laughed, loved and cried in. Places I went to study and places I went to relax.
Threads of my life are now woven into the tapestry of life that is part of the Spirit of Glasgow. I have emotional ties to so many places here now. I never dreamt all those years ago that I would still be in this city. I never dreamt it would come to mean so much to me. I never realised how strong that sense of homecoming would become because I’d never spent even half this time in any other place before.
Born in Brighton, England; childhood in a range of places; home – Glasgow, Scotland.
Musings of a Scottish Hearth Druid and Heathen 
You've not come across my Thomas Clancy or Geraldine Parsons have you? (In the Celtic Dept.)
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Unfortunately I don't have any contacts at all in the Celtic department. I can see info about them via the staff webpages but that's about it.
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Yes it's strange how a place can take you over isn't it. I feel the same about Aberystwyth and West Wales generally where I've lived now for 35 years. I went back to the part of London I grew up in a few years ago and spent some time just walking around. Although it was familiar and held memories, I was surprised how far away I was from it even when sitting in the park at the end of the street where I played as a child. The place I lived in is no longer there and the whole area now has the feel of somewhere that belongs to someone else. And that I am 'owned' by somewhere else.
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Must be interesting to have such strong ties to one place. My parents were constantly moving when I was a child, so we were never in one place long enough to form any bonds with places (or people).
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