I’ve found that most other students described home as I did — as a collection of feelings, less than one specific place. Often, a geographic location will play into those feelings, but home is less about being in that location than the feeling one associates with it.
For instance, Nicole Diaz, who has traveled extensively, wrote explicitly that for her, home is “more a feeling then it ever was a place.”
A sense of home is also usually tied to people, much less things. Diaz writes that she finds home in her boyfriend’s snore and hugs with friends. Lily Mclellan wrote about a strong childhood memory of her dad and uncle watching the winter olympics with her when she was eight. Aran Chang moved around a lot, so home is definitely tied to the people surrounding him as he grew up.
Even places one hasn’t lived for long can form a “piece of” home as Megan Cameron wrote about Orlando for her.
A sense of comfort is perhaps the most important thing when it comes to feeling like one is home — whether that be surrounding oneself with familiar people, or knowing every nook and cranny of a house, or hometown. It’s feeling something one has experienced countless times, even if, as Diaz wrote, it’s simply a cup of coffee in the morning. For Sophie Dafesh, it’s returning to the Palos Verdes Hills outside Los Angeles, ice cream and friends in tow. Gaby Rienhart wrote that she feels instantly at home as soon as she arrives back in the Bay Area, where she grew up.
Above all, there seems to be no right answer when it comes to what home means for different people. It’s much more complicated than a childhood home — it’s all the feelings, good and bad, uncomfortable and nostalgic, intertwined into something that feels right.