For the second part of this assignment, I read 4 of my classmate’s blogs. Here are some of the similarities between each story and my own.
•Cause I’m gonna make this place your home: Like Phillip Phillips’ song, some of my classmates and I share the view that it’s the people closest to us that give us the feeling of home. As Lian said in her story, “home is being with my family”. Comparably, Rabia describes her relationship with her younger brother as “unconventional”. She admits that the relationship with her brother appears to be dysfunctional, but “the quarrels are a way we express our love for each other”. In Cory’s story about Serj, he gets traded back and forth between two hockey clubs. As I see it, the relationship he holds with his teammates on the Eagles and Lumberjacks is the heart of the story. It’s pretty safe to say that other people are influential to our perception of home.
•Oh, you’re gonna miss me when I’m gone: There are features of home that we all love and hate. They are frequently, if not always underappreciated when we have it. We only mourn the loss of it once we don’t have it anymore. Once we leave it, we come to miss the things we despised. We don’t realize its significance until it’s gone. When Preet described her grandparent’s house, she expressed that its isolated location is a blessing in hindsight. Likewise, Lian describes the previous resentment towards her hometown of Drumheller. In her words, “Yet the old cliche rings true: You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Or you’re gone”. I can testify to this. What I had in my old house was a sense of peace and comfort, but what I lacked was independent space. Once I had it, its value was rather underwhelming. If I meant that I could feel safe again, I would’ve given up the luxuries of a nice house.
•Despite reality, our perception of home is that it is stable and unchanging: We assume that home is a place of stability, but is it actually? Or is it our memories of home that is experienced as stable? In all the blogs, everyone focused in on a specific event or memory, myself included. They were also about the change or loss of place. Even as hyperaware individuals, we still choose to believe that home is a static entity. We crave stability because it offers a sense of security. It’s almost inevitable that we imagine home as unchanging. I love this quote from John Green’s Paper Towns: “It is saying these things that keeps us from falling apart. And maybe by imagining these futures we can make them real, and maybe not, but either way we must imagine them (304)”.
In conclusion, I’d like to leave you with the following quote: “Whatever and wherever it is, home is always border country, a place that separates and connects us, a place of possibility for both peace and perilous conflict” (Chamberlin 3).
Works Cited
Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. Toronto: A.A. Knopf, 2003. Print.
Chhina, Preet. “2:1: Home (?).” English 470A: An Exploration of Canadian Literature. UBC Blogs, 11 June 2014. Web. 14 June 2014.
Green, John. Paper Towns. New York: Dutton Books, 2008. Print.
Kendrick, Anna. “Cups (Pitch Perfect’s “When I’m Gone”).” Video. Youtube.com. YouTube, 2013. Online. 14 June 2014.
Khan, Rabia. “Assignment 2:1.” Rabia’s English 470A Blog. UBC Blogs, 12 June 2014. Web. 14 June 2014.
Lister, Lian. “2:1 My Story, Your Story.” Finding True North: Lian Lister’s Blog for English 470: Canadian Studies. UBC Blogs, 10 June 2014. Web. 14 June 2014.
Phillips, Phillip. “Home.” Video. Youtube.com. YouTube, 2012. Online. 14 June 2014.
Wiemken, Cory. “Playing for the Home Team.” Cardboard. UBC Blogs, 9 June 2014. Web. 14 June 2014.
