Read at least 3 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find. Post this list on your blog with some commentary about what you discovered.
I really enjoyed reading through everyones stories this week. It was fascinating to gain insight into something as personal as what makes someone feel at home. What follows are a few observations of similarities and differences between a few of the students blogs and my own views on home. I struggled a bit to write this as I wanted to avoid putting words in the mouths of my classmates, while also attempting to pull short points out of much longer posts. I apologize if any of my classmates feel I strayed from this narrow path.
Mia’s story and sense of home really resonated with me and my own concept of home. Perhaps it was just the sense of motion throughout her story that seemed to echo my own, but even more fundamental than that I think is the sense of home that develops alongside this movement. Place becomes secondary in importance to having your family (human or otherwise) around you.
Laryssa’s story also appealed to me because of the similarities I could see between her depiction of home and my own. Like myself, Laryssa highlighted her feelings of safety when she is at her true home on her grandparents farm: “This is where I feel most at home. I feel like nothing can go wrong here”. This sense of home is what I attempted to focus on in my own story. Laryssa expanded on this idea in a different way however, by including a sense of enjoyment and fun in her portrait of home. I can definitely acknowledge the importance of such sentiments to the creation of a sense of home for myself, and in this way Laryssa’s story helped me expand my own concept of home.
Danica’s story stuck with me for a slightly different reason. There is a fundamental difference between her concept of home and my own; namely the importance of place. Yet what surprised me was the way in which her depiction of home struck a chord with my own feelings despite this foundational difference. Discovering interesting sea creatures and exploring the neighbourhood on bikes are experiences that appear to have shaped both of our lives. I guess this just shows how different paths can lead you to the same place. Home.
