Hello Everyone!

I found this assignment slightly challenging as my sense of home has changed significantly over the last year. I used to think of my home primarily as being West Kelowna. It is all I remember as I moved here from Airdrie Alberta when I was five and even when I go back not too much is familiar anymore. Since moving to BC I have only ever lived in West Kelowna (Or Westbank as it was called when I first moved here) however I have lived in six different homes in the 18 years I have been here. When I leave for a long time I always miss the mountains and the lake. The look of my surroundings and the feeling of being in my own bed. However, I lived in Orlando Florida for almost four months two summers ago and I now consider there a piece of my home and I always will. In the last year my feeling of home has dramatically changed. I have heard many people say that home isn’t a building, or a place it’s the people you are with and I really understand that now. I had my little boy a little over three months ago and I have just gotten engaged. My whole sense of home is different now. I don’t think of West Kelowna being my only sense of home, instead now its my family. This is not to say that my parents and siblings were not home to me before, because they most definitely were/are, but things are different now that I have a family of my own. I know that no matter where life takes me as long as I have my family by my side that everything is going to be ok. I have been told so many stories about how family affects the world around you through my parents. When my family moved from Alberta to British Columbia my parents left behind almost everyone they knew, including both of their parents and all of their siblings. My mom has told me so many times of how hard it was to leave the only place she knew, and how she remembers the look on my grandparents faces as they pulled out the driveway. At the time I understood how missing someone feels but I did not quite grasp the whole feeling. Since moving to BC both of my parents’ whole families have followed. I have both sets of grandparents in close driving distance, and both aunts and almost all cousins here. Turns out everyone else wanted to be close when they came to the realization that home isn’t home without the ones you love. Now that I have my son, and my soon to be hubby by my side everyday I could not imagine home without the both of them. My home is no longer a place or a building in my mind, it is now my little circle of love that I surround myself with. I love listening to people tell me about what home is to them, some people are so passionate about culture and what makes where they are from beautiful and I still understand that passion and that love for your hometown or country. I absolutely miss Canada when I travel and (almost) always miss it when I know a trip is over. But now I have realized that yes being home is amazing, and yes I love my country and yes I love my hometown, but my family will forever be my home no matter where I am.