Oh Canada ENGL 372

Home is an interesting topic. Everyone has an idea of what it means to them but we all have very different was of describing it. As I read through my classmates stories it was amazing to me how many stories I identified with wholeheartedly and how many were completely foreign feelings to me. Home is so particular to people, places, times, memories etc. but many of us are connected by the similarities in how these things compound into our sense of home.

Many stories were similar to mine in that we didn’t have any one particular place that we called home. For me, home has always been a very fluid concept. I moved a lot when I was a kid, spent a lot of time at my grandparents house, my aunts house, my uncles house and many more. I was completely at home in all of them but none of the houses were home to me. Like many of us, my sense that these places were home came from the ease and happiness, many people also mentioned the feeling of safety, that I knew I would find while I was there. These were also places where my family would gather. Gathering of friends and family was also a key similarity in stories of the feeling of home. It wasn’t unusual for Christmas to be at my Grandparents, Thanksgiving at my Uncles and Halloween at my parents. Regardless of whose house we were in I knew that my entire family being there would make it home.

Another similarity is the memories of peoples, places, smells and tastes that can make you feel at home. Many people spoke about foods that were prepared during holidays or food that was always prepared by their dad or mom. For me, maple syrup tastes like home because my Grandpa made it at his sugar shack and we ate maple candy whenever it snowed. The memories associated with the food fostered a feeling of home that became associated with that food. Food was spoken of particularly often because it is an easily (in most cases) transportable feeling of home. Many stories that I read where people moved away from home mentioned making a particular food when they were feeling home sick. This food and the memories of eating it with friends and family helped remind them of home. Many writers also had strong connections to natural elements or areas that made them feel at home. Some people feel more at home within the borders of their province while others feel at home with their feet in a stream or a lake. I personally feel a sense of home every time I’m submerged in a lake because I spent all my summers as a child until now at a lake in Ontario. Finally, the largest similarity was that it seems as though everyone who has a feeling of home rather then a place that they call home seems to agree that “home is where the heart is” is the best description of home.

The biggest difference that I noticed between stories like mine and other stories was the origin of the feeling of home. Many stories describe a search for home that I could not identify with. I have never know what it was like to not feel a sense of home because I have always felt it from a person, place, feeling, smell, food, etc. I also noticed that this search for home took a lot of writers on journeys whether that be across the world or to a new province. It was a new concept to me that individuals may choose to move in search of a feeling of home. I searched the www and found that many displaced Indigenous people are moving to cities to reunite with family and to try to find a sense of home in the same way that many of my classmates  had described.

Another difference. which I expected to encounter, was the feeling of home being connected to a specific house or location. I know that many people are very strongly connected to their childhood homes or the towns they grew up in. It was very interesting to hear the reasons why and to read descriptions of what that feeling is like. Many people also found their sense of home in one particular person. This person was evidently very important to them. The fluidity in my feeling of home means that any family member, friend, partner, etc. can provide a feeling of home. Sometimes I even seek out different people for the feeling of home depending on what I am struggling with. To hear stories of such a strong unwavering connection to one individual was very interesting.

In Summary:

Similarities includes:  home as a feeling, people (especially family) being home, the senses (tastes, smells, etc.) as connections to home, memories creating the feeling of home, places that you have never been before feeling like home and the feeling that “Home is where the Heart is”.

Differences: some people didn’t feel a sense of home inherently, searches for home, home being achievable, home as a destination, a particular location or house rather then a feeling, and home being a particular person.

Works Cited:

McIntyre, Jamie. “Sugar Shacks Northern Ontario” Northern Ontario Travel, 4 Apr. 2017,  https://www.northernontario.travel/northeastern-ontario/sugar-shacks-northern-ontario. Accessed 3 Feb. 2020.

Friesen, Joe. “Growing Indigenous Population Reshaping Cities Across the Country” The Globe and Mail, 26 Dec. 2016,  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/growing-indigenous-population-reshaping-cities-across-the-country/article33436120/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2020.