OOH CANADA!

Hi everyone! For this week’s blog post I will be identifying similarities in my classmates’ and my definition of ‘home’. I’ll be discussing Alexandra’s, Chino’s, Jade’s, Gaby’s, Megan’s, and Georgia’s blogs about the values of home. 

Alex says that she had a solid concept of home. She emphasized the trust her and her family members had, and how they valued honesty.

Georgia mentions that the feeling of home is having safety and warmth around you, and an overwhelming feeling of comfort.

Chino says that home is largely where you live and grew up, and where your house is.

Gaby discusses that home is where you feel loved and appreciated.

Megan discusses how the idea of home is largely based on the people you are surrounded by and spend time with.

Jade says that home is known as the place you lived from birth to present, the place you fell in love, and where you had your first heartbreak.

Upon reading everyone’s blog posts, I found a common theme that most people found the meaning of home either based on where they were born and grew up, or where their family was. I thought that each blog related largely to my conception of home but in very different ways. 

While family does not mean ‘home’ to me, it largely shaped my perception and meaning of home, which can relate mostly to Alex’s meaning of home. Alex says she feels safe with her family, and has a feeling of safety, love, and security. She also says that when her family moved to Vancouver last year, she no longer referred to the island as her home. Alex went on to attribute this to the fact that since her parents now live in Vancouver, she associates the feeling of ‘home’ to Vancouver, which is where her family is. 

Chino went on to state that home is the people that surround you, which I support. The people around you don’t have to be your family, but they can become like family. Home is also attributed to where your roots are. I found Chino and I to be quite similar when she says  ‘home is where the heart is’. I attribute this common saying to a feeling of safety and warmth, which is what I emphasized in my blog post about the feeling of home. Chino also says that home is everything and everyone we hold in our hearts, which I believe to be true.

Gaby believes that home is based on safety, acceptance, freedom and warmth. The feeling of safety was the grand notion in my blog post. I ended the post by saying that home is where you feel safe, which I feel Gaby also captures when describing her meaning and feeling of home for her. She also associated home to a feeling of fulfillment, pleasant experiences, and the things we love and appreciate. She believes that home is created by us and shaped by our own experiences.

Jade’s feeling of home resonated with me because she emphasizes where you grew up and experienced most things, and for me that is Vancouver. She also says that home is not just physical, but it is also emotional, and it is possible to have many homes because the home is what you make of it.

Megan was similar to me in the sense that she emphasizes familial ties, but she has a more positive outlook on it. She says family plays a large role in feeling and being at home, which I do agree with as well.

What I realized after completing this assignment was not to focus on how my peers and I viewed home as different concepts, but rather acknowledge that despite our extreme differences, we still have some of the same values. I found this extremely comforting and also interesting, and I hope you all enjoyed reading my blog post this week!

Thank you,

Maya Sumel 🙂

Works Cited:

MeganCameron. (2020, January 28). Megan Cameron’s Blog. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/megancameronengl372/2020/01/28/assignment-22/?fbclid=IwAR3E2RzujtfO7OU72_Z8ktgkV-51Jv1jaAsPaq8Wdr_MA_GgQZ6USxlmk8A

Greer, J. (2020, January 29). Menu. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/jadegreer/2020/01/29/assignment-2-2/?fbclid=IwAR2uvTDGBlj9uWNexvBmHyhbWffHqHOpteB9y4Ni5V2ecG4f5K5t2s-C6FE

Explorer Gaby’s Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/gabyliteratureexplorer/2020/01/28/the-story-of-home/?fbclid=IwAR0cn6_GtccTYjtuKPZ7ZzhW3jf6obFea-m0_8DayHJ6KKScVtBd9x2Wb9g

Masaki, G. (2020, January 27). Assignment 2.1: Home. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/georgiamasaki/2020/01/27/assignment-2-1-home/?fbclid=IwAR0t0awBGXwCE9zSdd2sxsAnNpEj7K96ZayKftf4OxsuHdWXnE75f039lZ4

Sinclair, A. (020, January 29) Assignment 1:5. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/english372/2020/01/29/assignment-15-2/

Rodriguez, A. C. (2020, January 28) Assignment 2.2: Home. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/crodriguezengl372/2020/01/28/assignment-2-2-home/?fbclid=IwAR0abiRkHbznyc-CFNSnY-kUOIL7vqfcYBRDD1n3qd-cf0xEy4uDkOn7C-4

Nelson, Zanteria. “Home Is Where The Heart Is.” The Odyssey Online, The Odyssey Online, 16 Oct. 2019, www.theodysseyonline.com/the-heart-is-home.