Home, it is a question that I always struggle to answer. Should I describe where my parents live now, or where my family meets up for holidays? Or should it be the place I’ve been living the last 3 years? How can I describe a home, when I’ve moved almost every year growing up. It has never been an easy question to answer. But I do know home is the taste of my mother’s curry, the aroma of spice, and coconut stirred in different vegetables and fruits. Home is my 3 brothers, as annoying as they are, spending time with them, or fighting over the best snacks in the house. Home is my father, cracking his jokes at the dinner table, the kind you roll your eyes at, but deep down know that you love. Home is the questions I always get from my parents,
“Are you doing alright?” ” Are you cooking now?” “How is your schoolwork?” “How is your job?”
Lately however, as I forge a new life for myself, home is also my significant other. The apartment that we share, the grocery shopping every Sunday, the food that we make, the laughs that we share, our simple moments. Us cuddling on a couch, talking about our days, and the plans that we have. Home is also the face masks and the wine nights I have with my friends, where we complain about the schoolwork we have or the the latest fling.
To me, home is a lot of things, and also one thing at once, its love. Everything that is home to me, is out of love. It is not about the place, as there are plenty of places I’ve been and lived, and as great as the places were, it is not where my mind travels first. It is the experiences, and memories I make with the people I love. Because with the people you love, you do things out of love, right?
It is also about being vulnerable, and being your true self. I think that I’m lucky I have a home with my family and friends, and that I am able to be open about my passions and desires in life. As well as having the support I need to succeed in what I want. Having this support is the reason why I’m able to attend this wonderful university (UBC), let alone write this blog post for one of my last classes prior to graduation. It is the reason why I am able to push myself to keep going and know that it is all for something.
I’m sure all of you have heard this before, that home is whatever you want it to be, but it really is true. As Pico Iyer says in his Ted Talk, “My home would have to be whatever I carried around inside me. ” Pico himself could not describe home as a single place, and I think as the world becomes more globalized, a lot of us feel the same way. Habitat for Humanity describes it best, it is a place of sadness and happiness, and moments that you cherish.
Airplanes, cars, trains, they have all mobilized us to be from different corners of the world, and because of that it is important we value what and/or whom we love. Especially, since a lot of us have left what we know to be at this University.
Writing this was a bit emotional for me as I haven’t seen my parents in a while, but I guess when you talk about home, it comes to that! So overall, what I value in home is the love, support, comfort and fun I have with the people I want to spend time with. Thanks for sharing this with me!
Works Cited
Iyer, Pico. “Where Is Home?” Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading, TED , June 2013, www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_where_is_home?referrer=playlist-what_is_home.
“What Does Home Mean to You?” Habitat for Humanity, www.habitat.org/stories/what-does-home-mean-to-you.