Read at least 6 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find. Post this list on your blog with some commentary about what you discovered.
First off, thank you to everyone who was willing to share an intimate story of home. Its very interesting to see the different ways people have grown up, and how they can connect to that point of their lives now in their adulthood.
Reading through a variety of blogs it is very clear that many people believe that home is fluid and is always changing. Many people question what attributes to a home, and how someone can choose one place — often their parents home, over another — usually their current apartment. Ross Hilliam questions in his blog, is home “where [he has] created the strongest memories, where [he has] been happiest, or where [he] simply [has] the most memories?”. He comments how different names and relationships can be attributed to different places, and he also mentioned that he strongly believes that homes can change. I agree with this questioning and share similar sentiments in my blog post. Trying to decipher between my current apartment, my summer camp and my parents home, I too have asked these questions and think of my different homes in very unique ways. Similarly Dana Truhar spoke of multiple homes, as opposed to the feeling of one overarching one that one can definitely call “my home”. She also comments on how a home is constantly changing. Another similar comment between Dana and I’s blog’s was that we both iterated that probably when we have a family of our own it will be different. As I expanded, I think our questions of home is highly due to the stage of life that we are in in university, because as the cliché would go, we are currently ‘trying to find ourselves’ not form a home.
Another similar sentiment I found in many blogs was the comment that home is a feeling, not necessarily a place. Cassie Lumsden spoke very well on this topic as she spoke of her and her family’s immigration story to Canada. Rachel Teasdale also spoke on the topic well as she wrote that homes “needs to be accompanied by loving people, and that feeling of safeness”. Although it is not as drastic as Cassie’s story, Rachel explains how her and her brother had swapped rooms, and the different feeling of home between the two rooms.
Aside from the blog posts that are fairly similar to what I had wrote, there are two blog posts I find very unique which I can relate to, however were different from what I had originally wrote in my story. The first of the two blogs is Andrea Melton’s, and the way she explained her home through her genealogy. I found this very compelling as I am an Eastern European Jew. So, when someone asks me where my family is from, that is how identify, not as Polish, Russian, or German, but as an Ashkenazie Jew. I feel as if I have no connection to those countries as my homes, even though its where my grandparents and some aunts and uncles were born and raised. (I mean you can probably infer as to why the Jew doesn’t have a strong connection to Eastern Europe) So, the closest personal comparison to that comment would be me seeing Israel — being Jewish and having the option of permanently moving there through the law of return , as a second home, and although many Canadian Jews do view Israel as their homeland, I do not.
On a similar theme, I also found Alexis Long’s blog post telling the story of her grandfather’s connection to home in Canada, even though he was discriminated against very interesting and similar to my family’s story. My grandparents and great grandparents immigrated to Canada not to long after Prime Minister Mackenzie King infamously said “none are too many”. Many places in Montreal had signs that read “no Jews” well into the 50s and 60s. Alexis posed a question in her blog about how one’s home can/should be affected if they’re not viewed as a citizen, regardless of growing up there, or having a good job and helping the economy. I found this comment very interesting because aside from the question of did my family feel as though Canada was their home when they immigrated here unwanted, I would wonder how my family felt with viewing these European countries as their homes during the atrocities of the Holocaust. As both my grandfathers passed away either before I was born or when I was little, I was unable to ask them these questions, however my bubbie, that immigrated from Poland with her family when she was only a few months old, has explained that even though she lived in Montreal in Canada, her family still lived very similarly to the way in which they lived in Europe. They lived in a predominately Jewish community, ate kosher food, owned and would shop from Jewish-owned stores, and spoke Yiddish at home. She explained that they brought Europe to Canada, which I would figure would conflict your sense of home.
I think the notion of home is interesting, and it is has been a very fun and compelling exercise to read and compare everyone’s stories. Thanks!
References
Truhar, Dana. “Assignment 2:2 – My Home Story.” 31 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/canlit470dana/2019/01/28/assignment-22-my-home-story/.
Teasdale, Rachel. “I’m not meant to live alone, turn this house into a home.” 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/rachelteasdale/.
Melton, Andrea. “Belonging Home” 28 Jan. 2019. https://blogs.ubc.ca/andreamenglish470/2019/01/28/22-belonging-home/#comments
Lumsden, Cassie “Home: The Family and the Familiar” 28 Jan. 2019. https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470blog/blog-posts/
Long, Alexis “Blog 2.2: The Canadian Home” 28 Jan. 2019, https://blogs.ubc.ca/alexis470/
Hilliam, Ross “Home – Beautiful British Columbia” 28 Jan. 2019. https://blogs.ubc.ca/rosshilliameng470/
Hi Sandra,
I really enjoyed reading your interpretation of other people’s concepts of home. The most interesting connection that drew my attention was your connection to Alexis’s story about her grandfather being discriminated against in Canada.
It is very interesting to think about how one’s perception of home can be different if they are not viewed as a citizen in said country, but how they can still consider that place home regardless of prejudice.
It is amazing that although home is different to all of us in some way, we can still make connections and draw similarities – which allows us to connect and feel closer together as human beings.