The idea and conception of home that I hold is very near and dear to my heart, and I therefore have so thoroughly enjoyed reading through our classes blog’s regarding this topic. The threads have provided interesting insight and sneak peeks into each other’s home, families, traditions, and ideas.

A quote from Jessica Bernoe’s blog really jumped out at me: “Home to me is the physical place and the mental space of comfort”. Both parts of that sentence ring true for me, and also seem to ring true for classmates. Home is not necessarily where you spend the most time, it is not always the place your family is, or your friends, or your childhood pet. Home is the physical space in which you are at comfort.

For others, home is where your family is.

Where there is love.

Where there are memories of the past, and plans for the future.

Where there is comfort in familiarity – be it objects, people, places, views, stores, or food (as Chris Cheung beautifully wrote about in his blog).

Emotional attachement.

Safety.

Comfort.

Ease.

And for others, home is not something that is “pinpoint-able”. It appears that most of my classmates are lucky enough to have a concrete sense of home, in a sense that when asked where or what home is, we can construct an answer with at least a semi-definitive meaning. But home does not have to be a single place, a single building, or a single memory. Home can be where one feels they belong. Take the children at the International school in Singapore featured in Greta Anne Craig’s blog – within the walls of that classroom, the children felt a sense of belonging, a sense of comfort in the surroundings, despite perhaps not having a place to easily call home.