I loved everyone’s story about home, I ended up reading nearly half of them, and will probably continue to read the rest later. I noticed a few similarities between my reflection of home, and the reflections of other students. There were a few different styles of writing, some (like myself) told mostly stories, while others analysed their experiences to understand how they related to home. However, there were a number of similar themes throughout each blog.
Family. Everyone seemed to connect our families and those who we grew up with, and raised us to be our sense of home. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. All of these important people in our lives were talked about in detail in each story.
Environment. Whether it was the BC backyard, filled with images of lakes, farms, beaches, and mountains, or in another country, learning to find home in another land, or simply balancing first impressions of what home means, people seem to be able to find a sense of it where ever we go.
Pets. Our pets are our family. They are loyal to the end, and make up so many of the stories that we remember when we are older. I remember the absolute fear I felt when my dog wasn’t beside me in the middle of the night, and the guilt that I still feel, 15 years later, for having left her behind. I also remember, like others, the hilarious stories, such as finding my other dog on the roof one day, having chased our cat out the window, and another student told of her golden retriever stealing an entire chicken off the stove. I missed my dogs with an incomparable ache when I was away, and realized that they make up such a huge part of what home is to me.
House. There is a difference between our home and our house, but for many of us, the house we grew up in is still our home. Like many, while my sense of home is so much more complicated than a a physical structure, the house is what I picture when I think of home; its smells, colour, dents, and little idiosyncrasies.
Traditions. Many of us hold memories of habits, rituals, or traditions that our families had or still have when we described our sense of home. My stories are filled with traditions, and even if some of these traditions are changing, I still connect them to home.
There were a few words that were either included, or referred to in many of our recollections and tales: security, comfort, warmth, dependency, laughter, peace, journey, pain and healing, acceptance, and of course love.
Works Cited
Lemon, Leana. “How to Save Your House”. English 470 Canadian Studies. UBC Blogs. Jan 30 2015. Web. 1 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/leanacanadianstudies/>
Ng, Florence. “2.1 Home is a pie chart and a couple of memories”. Maple Trees and Beaver Tails. UBC Blogs. 31 Jan 2015. Web. 1 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/florenceng/>
Smith, Christie. “Home”. A Journey into Canadian Literature. 29 Jan 2015. UBC Blogs. Web. 1 Feb 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/canadianjourney/>
🙂 Thanks Charlotte