After reading other students’ blogs, the shared assumptions I found about home is:
- Support
- Spending time with loved ones (family)
- Non Physical entity
- Security
I think it is safe to say all 4 points on my list are interconnected. None of the ideas of home ended up being a physical entity, and I find that highly significant in this day and age. With globalization, and UBC being a highly diverse student body, I think people are starting to or have found home in intangible things. It is also important to remember that countries are a social construct, an idea of varied “sovereign statehood” (Taiye Selasi). I find that in this day and age it is hard to describe home as one place. What is interesting about her statement is that it becomes limiting when you try to define things on a singular concept. What really stood out to me was when she said, “identity is experience.” Very true. Pico Iyer, in his Ted Talk, even says that there are over 220 million people not living in their own country. Globalization eats away at the concept of home as a physical entity,
I found a lot of people had said support, which makes sense because as we go through life and come across obstacles, it is essential to have support to get through them, and the people we find support are also the people we end up spending time with. Spending time with someone builds a bond. While I found a common trend for most bloggers to say family, there are some who mention the friendships and the relationships they built. Going back to Pico Iyer, he tells us as home is engulfed in flames, he ends up sleeping in his friends house with only a toothbrush he bought from a supermarket. I think the point of his story was that he could not say his home was the physical house as that is already gone, but his relations; his family and friends who are there to support him and have each others’ back. This is why home tends to be a nonphysical entity.
People tend to have also described home as a place of security, which I highly agree with, and is also connected to my other 3 points on the list, a feeling, an intangible thing. Security is what gives life to home, where we can be ourselves, and be vulnerable.
Overall, it was quite enjoyable reading blogs on stories about home. In a way, it showed me I need to appreciate the people around me more and really take care of my home.
Thank you all!