Prompt: Read at least 3 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find. Post this list on your blog with some commentary about what you discovered.
Based on my own experience with immigration, I was drawn to blogs that discussed the concept of multiple homes. I found that reading these posts has made me more reflective and nostalgic about my move this past year from Vancouver to California. I definitely feel more of an awareness and a deeper connection to my new home, because of these inspiring stories.
Here are the three blogs that I looked at:
Saarah: “Home is not just a single place or a single person. Home is an ever evolving organism, shifting and changing as you grow older and fall in love with people, places, and moments.”
Saarah’s story of home is very similar to mine. We both had to move to a new country which we initially disliked. We also felt the loss of our previous homes, which symbolized comfort and familiarity, as she misses “the cozy apartment I had left ”. Adjusting, and feeling a sense of belonging takes time, but eventually Saarah began to see Karachi as her new home.I like how Saarah discusses the bad and good things that occur in Karachi. It seems that the contradictions that occur in a place, make it seem more like a home. The idea of a “home” as a fluid imperfect entity, reminds us that it is not a tangible object that remains dormant in perfection (eg: houses with white picket fences)
Erica:“I don’t really consider home a place but rather a feeling and for me it is when I am near my loved ones”
I really enjoyed reading Erica’s story of adoption and how this has influenced her understanding of home. She described how her parents and sister are scattered between different countries. Thus, home to her is a feeling rather than a concrete place. Like others have mentioned, home can be found within our hearts. Home is where we find happiness and this is usually associated with the memories we create with our loved ones. For me, this is typically fooling around with my sisters in the garden trying to see who can do the best handstands.
Debra: Home is “our own sense of belonging and attributing it not to a single place, but simply places wherein familiarity can be established. “
Debra has had multiple homes as she has moved from Singapore to Vancouver. She discusses the gentrification that Singapore has undergone: “the park I used to play at is now the home of one of the largest luxury shopping malls in the world”. This concept of gentrification reminds us that home can be constantly changing. Thus, she states that forging home to her is not a problem, as familiarity helps to reconstruct it. Traditions help in this process as she hosts gatherings for her Singaporean friends. For me, an important South African tradition that my family has kept is “tea time”. Tea time is typically at 10 am, where we would have tea, a cookie, and some sort of fruit. We continued this tradition to Vancouver, and now to California. It helps bind my family and my homes together, and even my friends always ask about “tea time”.
Works Cited:
Cook, Erica. “Home .” Oh Canada! 5 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/ericacook>.
Ghazi, Saarah. “2.2.” Engl 470: A study in Oh Canada. 4 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/saarahgeng470/>.
Goei, Debra. “So This is Where I Know is Home.” Oh Canada! An interpretation . 5 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/debragoei470>.