Reading through my fellow students’ blogs, I wasn’t that surprised to find that a majority of those I selected to read associated Home with a sense of security. A few I read also brought in the aspect of a pet that brings a sense of Home to them. Another common theme was family; family dinners; memories tied to extended family members. I feel like these are all safely assumed similarities I had before starting this assignment and reading others’ stories just confirmed in my mind what I already felt I knew.
The sense of security that Home brings was present in a few blogs, though not all. I feel like this has to do with the questioning of Home these blogs brought up.
What was complicated to me was the fact that every blog that I read questioned where “Home” was. Nearly everyone that I read had moved from either a different Canadian province or from a completely different country. Granted most of these moves generally happened at a young age, some of them seemed to be more recent, happening in the blogger’s adulthood.
It is such a strange concept to me to question where Home is, but then again I’ve been lucky. I currently am typing this assignment up from my childhood home; my parents are downstairs talking about something lively; their voices are traveling up the stairway. The only difference being that my childhood has been somewhat erased through the years.
Perhaps the easiest eraser to explain is the paint on the walls of the room I am residing in. It was once the playroom for my brother and me. I had drawn on the walls with a pen my dad gave me when I was six or so, being caught by my mother and instantly breaking out into tears. In the past eight years I’ve painted it, twice. It became my room after my brother moved out as it was much bigger than my childhood bedroom.
The bigger eraser, that is a little more difficult to talk about for me, has to do with the renovations that happened of the result of a house fire in 2015. All the drywall had to be replaced (the excepting being the playroom as the door was closed and escaped smoke damage) so not even the scars of playtime with my brother remain.
Despite these changes to the house, it will always be Home because of the familiarity of the layout. Even the few years I spent living with an ex-partner, every time I walked through the front door of my parents’ place, it just felt right. It was, and always will be, Home.
“Weekend at the Mountain Lodge” by Anita Skinner. Puzzle by Stand Out Puzzles from West Kelowna, BC. Picture taken by myself from the ‘puzzle corner’ in my childhood home. I felt it was a good embodiment of more elements I consider of home. Puzzling; the Canadian Flag; camping; fresh water source. The list goes on.
Blogs Cited
Collins, Zac. “Blog 2:2 :: Where the Heart Is.” Englitwithzac, 2020, https://blogs.ubc.ca/englitwithzac/. Accessed Feb 15, 2020.
McConnell, Aiden. “Assignment 2:2 – There’s No Place Like Home.” Canadian Literature Blog, 2020, https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl372aidan/2021/02/10/assignment-22-theres-no-place-like-home/. Accessed Feb 15, 2020.
Nikoo, Mia. “Where The Heart Is.” Literary Traveller, 2020, https://blogs.ubc.ca/mianikoo/. Accessed Feb 15, 2020.
Rance, Holly. “Coming Home.” Rediscovering a Nation: A Study of The Power of Stories, 2020, https://blogs.ubc.ca/hollyrance/. Accessed Feb 15, 2020.
Stewart, Samantha. “Jumping Waves.” Rocks, Tress, Water, 2020, https://blogs.ubc.ca/rockstreeswater/. Accessed Feb 15, 2020.
Yamanaka-Leclerc, Leo. “2:2: Home.” English 372 – Canadian Literature, 2020, https://blogs.ubc.ca/english372leoyamanakaleclerc/. Accessed Feb 15, 2020
Work Cited
Skinner, Anita. Weekend at the Mountain Lodge. Stand Out Puzzles, https://standoutpuzzles.com/product/weekend-at-the-mountain-lodge/?v=4326ce96e26c. Accessed Feb 15, 2020.