h-o-m-e

What our homes have in common:

• Sharing stories (just like how we are now)
• Place of trust and comfort
• Place to overcome obstacles together
• Place we can return to
• Our family that supports us, bears with us, makes sacrifices for us
• We have opportunities to grow and learn from our experiences
• Shared warmth of home and family
• Where we go to in times of need/trouble
• Shaped geographically (is our home far away from others, far away from where we are now?)

For this assignment, I read four of my colleagues’ blogs:

Florence’s, Jeff’s, Leana’s, and Shamina’s. Along with my own blog post, I really got the sense that home is a place of safety, trust, and comfort. We know that we can go to our families, who are a part of home, and the physical home itself to look for these three things. In Shamina’s and Leana’s blogs, they share different experiences of their family supporting them. Though she was eager to get away from home, Shamina still felt the care of her mother from far away. Leana’s mother worked from home to take care of her children and along with Leana’s father helped her brother out of a scary situation. These speaks of how family is integral to the concept of home. Jeff points out that

“Home is a place that values … helping with obstacles along the way”. As we grow up, we find that home is where we have had a lot of learning experiences. Our family has also been an important part of shaping our character and as Florence says, “home is directly involved in our history”.

Geography also influences how we think of home. For Florence who has lived in three different places, she takes Vancouver to be home. As for Shamina and me, we both think of home as living on residence and where we are originally from. Home is able to transcend geographical borders and we are able to take home with us wherever we go.

Interestingly, Florence, Jeff, and Shamina all shared the same music videos. Phillip Phillips’ “Home” and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros’ “Home” were featured in their blogs. These types of songs resonant with people because they can be interpreted to whatever home means to someone.

In general, I believe that the four blogs I have shared on here (as well as my own) take a positive view on what home is. Even though there may be struggles and negative situations at home sometimes, we work to make home a happy and secure place.

Works Cited

Kallu, Shamina. “Home is Wherever I’m With You.” WordPress. 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

Lemon, Leana. “How to Save Your House.” WordPress. 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

Liu, Jeff. “‘Cause I’m Gonna Make This Place Your Home’.” WordPress. 29 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

Ng, Florence. “Home is a Pie Chart and a Couple of Memories.” WordPress. 31 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.