It brought me a feeling of warmth to read six of my fellow students’ perspectives of what sense of home means to them. For every person, “home” triggers different feelings and stories. I read Maya, Emilia, Jade, Gabrielle, Nargiza, and Megan’s blogs. To those whose blogs I did read, thank you for sharing your personal blogs and allowing me to peak into your unique upbringing. Some took a historic lineage approach while others spoke modernly about their family. Regardless, I found commonly shared assumptions, values, and stories across all blogs that I read.

Commonality 1: Home is a vivid and distinct memory

Although at a young age, memories are more difficult to retain, home is a strong and detailed image in everyone’s mind. Emilia talks about the sound of “coyotes yip(ping) in the hills, and a symphony of frogs croak in the wall”. Megan mentions the way she misses “the look of (her) surroundings and the feeling of being in (her) own bed. These smells, sounds, and touches that we grow up in are so vital to who we are today that the most particular images resign in our minds regardless of how much time passes. My great grandmother could never remember that her husband had passed away two years ago. She would ask when he would be home for dinner, but she could explain every detail of her childhood home. Nargiza describes a memory of her family dynamic, rushing to get to dinner and at the restaurant. A

Commonality 2: Home changes

Not only do physical homes and family dynamics change throughout one’s lives, but so does the people and feelings that create the meaning of home. Even having the most stable life at home, people come and go and so does our trust in those people. One of my classmates, Maya, admirably spoke about her mother’s substance abuse and her parents’ divorce as a child. That being said, she now feels that she “is at home when (she) goes home”. It took most of her life for her to feel this way. Megan actually begins her blog by saying that the assignment was difficult for her simply because of how much her definition of home has changed over the years. Although the thought of home not being a consistent, solid concept may be intimidating, I find comfort in knowing that if home is lost it can be found again. 

Commonality 3: Home is not a place, it is a person(s)

For many people, especially those who come from perhaps not the healthiest of physical home environments, home is a person(s), as opposed to a place. Most of the blogs I read touched on their physical home as well but focussed on the loved ones in their lives that provide the feeling of home. Gabrielle spoke about a distance between her and her family based on an unhealthy dynamic and because of this, home is “non-geographical: (she) is at home when (she) is with one or more of the people closest to (her)”. Home is not even necessarily the people within that physical home, they are often not even related at all. This allows a home to be something that can be found after it is lost, or found after years of not having one at all. Nargiza talks about the feeling of home, coming from doing ordinary, “boring” things with the people that you love. Every blog I read emphasized on the feeling that makes something home, before referring to home as a place at all. Maya described home very accurately in terms of the other blogs that I have read, as “safety, security, and having someone to turn to”. 

This assignment was very interesting to me and my favorite one yet. It allowed me to learn that although we all come from different families and backgrounds, we all share similar values that make something home.  Thank you for reading my blog and for allowing me to read yours!

Explorer Gaby’s Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/gabyliteratureexplorer/2020/01/28/the-story-of-home/?fbclid=IwAR0cn6_GtccTYjtuKPZ7ZzhW3jf6obFea-m0_8DayHJ6KKScVtBd9x2Wb9g

Greer, J. (2020, January 29). Menu. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/jadegreer/2020/01/29/assignment-2-2/?fbclid=IwAR2uvTDGBlj9uWNexvBmHyhbWffHqHOpteB9y4Ni5V2ecG4f5K5t2s-C6FE

MeganCameron. (2020, January 28). Megan Cameron’s Blog. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/megancameronengl372/2020/01/28/assignment-22/?fbclid=IwAR3E2RzujtfO7OU72_Z8ktgkV-51Jv1jaAsPaq8Wdr_MA_GgQZ6USxlmk8A

NargizaAlimova. (2020, January 28). Engl 372: Oh Canada. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/nargizaalimova/2020/01/28/assignment-2-2/

OOH CANADA! (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/mayasumel/?fbclid=IwAR3ge2PIYqBNjf4MzGg-KTNxrT5bvSh3V4SCl1m4JAJH1Q5wIEW7bAgoV4o