Read at least 6 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of BOTH the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find and look for differences as well; look to see if you can find student peers who appear to have different values then yourself when it comes to the meaning of ‘home.’ Post this list on your blog and include commentary please.
I’ve read through over six of your blog posts with the aim of trying to understand your assumptions and values about home. Although I know on an intellectual and superficial level that we are so very much different, experiencing this difference through your writing brings this understanding to a depth far deeper than any intellectual understanding can do. Yet we all share a common humanity. We all strive for belonging, close bonds, and a stable sense of identity.
All of you have experienced some degree of homelessness. On the one end is Rachel, who felt it when she changed rooms in her family home. This new room had not yet been turned into a home by creating memories with people she cares about. For her a sense of home “is found in human interaction and community.”
On the other end is J.T. has never felt connect to a place either here in Canada of back in his home country Korea. His homelessness comes from the alienation and disconnect he has feels. He has never felt valued by his peers in Korea or his family growing up. “I never felt like I belonged home, or anywhere else”
This theme of belonging was common to all but one. Lexis and Alexis have felt unbelonging because of how others’ view and treat them based on their ethnicity. For both of them there is disconnect between their multigenerational roots here in Canada and their “exotic” or Asian appearance. For Tamara and Suzanne, this unbelonging came from traveling and moving. Neither has stayed in one place enough to gain a deep sense of belonging. Tamara, like Lexis and Alexis, struggles with having consistent sense of identity given her complex historic ethnicity.
Yet we are all so different. Our experiences and relationships are what give us our individuality. Although it is our memories that either connect or disconnect us from our homes, each of our memories are so very different. Suzanne’s fond memories of her mother define her, just as J.T. painful memories of his father define him. However, the way they are defined by these memories are far more different than anyone can know.
Some of us have experienced racism while others’ have not, and the racism felt by those so unlike is unique and incommensurable. Sure we all share a sense of injustice, either directed upon ourselves from others or upon others by others, the emotional tones of this felt injustice is so very different because our experiences that make us who we are are different.