Write a short story (600 – 1000 words) that describes your sense of home; write about the values and the stories that you use to connect yourself to, and to identify your sense of home.
Discussing my home was once a difficult topic for me. For almost all my life I associated my home with my green and white medium-sized house in Steveston, British Columbia. My mom and dad, my two younger sisters and I all lived together for the majority of our lives. I first felt I was leaving my home when I decided to go to school in Victoria. Leaving my home and the loved ones around me made me feel like I was losing something special. I would no longer get to wake up every morning to the sound of my mom dropping each and every pot and pan, or the sound of water running from the shower. These might seem like silly things to miss, but to me it was different waking up to the sound of cars on the road and my neighbours slamming their doors before running off to class.
What changed my thoughts of home was when my parents ended their relationship. It happened while I was away in Victoria and it was hard for me not being there because I didn’t get to see the process and instead was just thrown into it when I returned for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas break. My parents let me know what was going on, but I felt distanced from the situation. Returning home to find one parent gone every single time was one of the hardest experiences I’ve had. I felt like part of my home was missing and it wasn’t going to come back. Having to leave after a few days each time was also difficult because I would constantly think about the what ifs. What if mom leaves and doesn’t come back? What if dad finds someone else and leaves our family? What if Tess and Hay need me at home? What if mom sells the house and I don’t know where they go?
I know some of these questions seem crazy or unlikely, but they were constantly running through my mind the whole time I was away. My parents eventually did get a divorce and my mom stayed in our childhood home while my dad found a house near by. My dad has since remarried and I have two older step-sisters and a step-mom who I love. My idea of home changed through the experiences along the way to this point.
I once felt home was my mom, my dad, my sisters and I in our medium-sized house in Steveston, BC. And you know what? I don’t think this feeling of home will ever leave me. But my home has become so much more. My feeling of home now includes more relationships. Home is my fiancé and I and our two cats in our tiny apartment. Home is my dad, my step-mom, my older sisters, my younger sisters wherever we are. Home is my mom, my sisters and I. Home isn’t just my childhood home anymore, but it’s the feeling I have when I walk in the door and see my mom baking my Grammy’s ginger snap cookies. Home is how I feel when I see my mom singing along to her favourite songs. Home is when she pulls me up and we dance for hours. Home is my dad’s constant support and hugs at the end of every visit. Home is the homemade cards my sisters’ make me every year. Home is walking with my sister’s and my mom every Christmas morning at 6:00am singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs in the freezing cold. Home is when my fiancé got down on one knee on the pier near where my great grandparents’ and grandparents’ spent most of their lives.
One of my favourite songs is Michael Bublé’s “Home“. I absolutely fell in love with this song when I heard it back in high school. I am someone who focuses on lyrics of songs more than the music itself. When I listen to the song it reminds me that home doesn’t have to be my childhood home where I grew up, but that it can be my feelings and relationships with my loved ones. I still listen to the song especially in situations where I feel distanced emotionally or physically from where I feel at home.
John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” also means a lot to me. Home is in its title and it is a song about a man finding his way home to all the things he misses, but it also reminds me of my own experiences of feeling home. My mom, my sisters, and I would sing to this song on our road trips to horse ranches or Mt. Baker. My mom would play the song at our house and we would sit together and sing along. In the song John Denver talks about wanting to be where he belongs. Singing along to his songs with my mom and my sisters, I always feel I am exactly where I belong.
Home for me is wrapped up in my feelings. I’ve realized that for me home doesn’t have to be a specific place. Home for me is not just a house. Home is the people I love, our unbreakable but changeable relationships, and memorable experiences.
I wrote this poem for my fiancé (about two years ago) before we were engaged. With him I always feel home.
You Got Me
For Mark
In that ‘always busy’ type café, a center of attention,
the two of us left feeling defiantly more open.
You remembered me, a girl moving across that field,
soccer ball between my feet, with a bruised right knee,
and a too-wide grin.
You told me first, your feelings were true.
Those three paper roses, concealing a note with no writer,
I knew were from you.
You got me.
Holding you to feel memories, almost five years since then,
shows me the importance of each minute, I wish, then, I knew.
Moments that left me dizzy, winded,
laughs that brought me off chairs,
the endless times you followed me and
our first date, that ‘always busy’ café.
Our stolen glances and your perfect mistakes,
long walks through rain
and the hallway where you first kissed me.
Your scars, mine.
Hot chocolate, a love too deep, too reckless,
something with a promised ending.
The dark eyes, wide nose and twitching fingers on you,
triggered my genuine smiles.
The fingers that pinched my blood-stained cheeks,
the forehead kisses and expeditions to nowhere,
but it all brought me home.
The blossoms against our faces, the strength within our grasps;
the weakness in our inability to stray,
the difference in our acceptance of this flaw.
This made us free.
Works Cited:
JohnDenverVEVO. “John Denver – Take Me Home, Country Roads.” YouTube. YouTube, 05 Apr. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrEljMfXYo. Accessed 28 Sept 2016.
MichaelBubleTV. “Michael Bublé – Home [Official Music Video].” YouTube. YouTube, 26 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbSOLBMUvIE. Accessed 28 Sept 2016.
Parkin, Chloë. Chloë and Mom at Graduation. Photo, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Parkin, Chloë. Mark and Chloë at the Pier. Photo, White Rock Beach, BC, Canada.
Parkin, Chloë. Chloë and Tessa. Photo, Richmond, BC, Canada.
