As I alluded to in my first post for this class, I feel that we all share many cross-cultural similarities that often get swallowed up by investigations of our differences. There are many examples of common values and beliefs between people which may not be immediately evident, as I’m sure as we have come to realize now after reading the stories of home written by our fellow classmates. Our sense of home is undoubtedly something shared across nations and cultures, and below are some examples of similarities that were immediately evident to me as I read through a handful of your blogs.

•  One obvious connection we have is that home must contain our families; Sarah’s story shows us that our families are what make ‘home’ so special, and Christie says that her home needs to be full of people and live or it isn’t a home at all.
• Along this notion of a visceral but not quite physical home we can see that the concept of home is capricious for many people and it evolves as we grow. Heather tells us a story of a girl who is tragically unable to find a home, and the tale explores the importance of finding home and the harrowing search for one who struggles to do so. Florence and Lauren’s stories also show us how our sense of home can move spatially, without losing its importance.
• Home is also something we cherish, something we consider very valuable to who we are as people. Leana describes her “sabotage” attempts, with her brother as co-conspirator, when her parents considered selling their house. Jasmine similarly has a very emotional connection with home, and her story describes the tough transition from a warm family home to a strange dorm building (ultimately opening new opportunities, but nonetheless a difficult transition).

While not all of these values are ubiquitous we can certainly find many of them shared between ourselves. I encourage you to go to the stories I linked if you feel that your sense of home matches what our fellow classmates have written about because the connections we make with others allow us to grow, not just as students but as people too. This was something I learned from travelling, but thanks to this exercise I learned that I really didn’t have to look too far. All around us are people who share many of our beliefs, and it seems that story-telling is a great medium to realize this fact.