The following is a list of ideas and quotes that I have found, while reading my classmates’ blog posts, to accurately construct a definition of home.

• Home is an amalgam of memories and feelings.
• “Home is fleeting, it moves when we do, changes when we adapt, grows when we age” (Angela Olivares).
• Home is a concept that comprises of, at least in part, family, friends and lovers.
• Home is, simply put, where you live (Kevin Sun).
• ‘“Home” is difficult to define and contains numerous emotional, psychological, and perhaps even spiritual meanings’ (Gretta Datten).
• Home ‘doesn’t necessarily have to relate to any physical space specifically’ (Hailey Froehler).
• Home is where you feel a sense of belonging; a sense of being a key that fits perfectly into a lock, a recognition of something kindred between yourself and the ground upon which you are standing.

I found myself nodding in agreement as I read all the pieces I have quoted above. I think that Angela, Kevin, Gretta and Hailey have captured the essence of home by acknowledging that it cannot be captured.

I believe, like them, that it is difficult for many people to pin down exactly where they think home is. To test this, I asked a few friends and family members what home meant to them. Some of the responses I got included:

• ‘Home is my backyard in the summer. In the winter too, but it’s more of an igloo than a home then.’
• ‘Home is the beach in Karachi, in Vancouver, in Brighton, in Sydney.’
• ‘Home is hookah and cards.’
• ‘Home is my parents. And my dog.’
• ‘Home is my camera and something to point it at.’
• ‘Home is wherever family is.’
• ‘Home is food and my bed.’

These people are all getting at the same idea that my classmates and I believe in- that home is what you make it, home is the people you love, the activities you enjoy and the feeling that you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere because you’re right at home where you are. (See what I did there?)

Ending off with a song that is unrivalled in its relevance to this post: Home. (I prefer this cover to the original)

Works Cited

Datten, Gretta. “Assignment 2:2”. Liberal Leaning Literary Landscapes Labryritnhinely Lined with Liminal Loops of Logic and Legend. UBC Blogs, 3 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Froehler, Hailey. “The Ambiguity of ‘Home’.” English 470A. UBC Blogs, 5 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Olivares, Angela. “Assignment 2:3- Homeward Bound”. ENG 470. UBC Blogs, 8 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Sun, Kevin. “Where I Live”. Many Homes, One Earth. UBC Blogs, 5 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.