Just a short blog which is really just a question. I was asked this question earlier this week by someone at uni and didn't really know what the answer is so I thought I'd see if anyone would comment and give me an answer.
I was asked whether my room in my house at uni felt like home. My initial reaction was no because it clearly isn't that is not my home address, it is just somewhere I happen to live for the academic year but then I got to thinking. In a way it is kind of like home because it has my stuff in it from my room at home and it has my photos of everyone in it but then I am not with the people in the photos, the people I love and care immensely for so is home the place where these people are?
I still don't know the answer so I will pose the question here:
Where is home?
10 comments:
I think it depends on where you're happy. if your not happy at uni then its not going to feel like home. Like the saying goes, home is where the heart is. I have always got by thinking that home is where i am- but i suppose thats because i am happy both at uni and when i'm back at romford. Stuff does not make a place 'home'- it makes it a place where all your stuff is and thats all. 'Home' is a feeling- not an address or a box full of things. you feel where home is.
When you've found the answer, let me know. I graduated 4 years ago and still don't know the answer.
I need time to think about this one!
hey... home is where i am... cus ifnot when ur saying "i miss home" ur not saying ur missing me!!!!!
and, i think u can live in a house but it not be your home, i mean, if u live in a complete empty house with nothing it it then its not really a home is it??! but compare that empty house with a house full of ur stuff - photos, bed lining, curtains, tv etc surely that is more of a home??!!
I think home is the place where, when push comes to shove
(whatever that means) you just want to be and I can be precise about it because I've never been anywhere other than the place I want to be, so I don't know how hard it is NOT to be there/here. I don't particularly think I'm a better person for it though. People who 'go away' to Uni have an independance about them that I am only JUST learning about.
But sometimes having too many places to go means 'home' becomes a dream-like image.
How long do you have to be somewhere to make it home?
That's a good question Dawn, is 'home' then measured by how long you have been in a place?
Can I chip in here?
A friend of mine at uni used to say 'home is where my stuff is' but I was never convinced by that. Think that was influenced though by the fact she was from a military family and was used to moving around (not unlike Army officers' kids, I guess).
I had another friend whose Mum FREAKED when she referred to university as 'home'. Guess that's insecurities on the part of the parent but without having been in that situ (either way) I'm not in a position to comment.
I would say that I don't think the length of time you've been there has anything to do with it though, at least not in my case:
Take our house (I wish someone would, it's been on the market long enough...):
We bought it six months before getting married and, even though I didn't live there until after the glorious day, over those six months it became more and more like home, despite also not really moving my stuff in there 'til about 3 weeks before the wedding.
I guess it's 'cos it's the first 'home' I've ever 'built' in the sense of shaping it with my wife (or rather her shaping it and telling me where to put things, just kidding if you're reading this!). Don't think there's a definitive answer really, it's just where you feel it is (says he, removing the fence-sitting splinters from his backside).
For me, I realised my uni house was 'home', when I called it that naturally. Just in conversation, if you say, 'I am going home' without thinking about it - if it just sort of slips out like that, then it probably is home. Guess that will be different for different people. I think I did that quite early on, but I always felt completely natural in my uni house anyway.
Andy - when are you gonna get that blog published? Come on, it'll be brilliant, you're so lyrical!!
First of all I would like to apologise for being shamefully slow on commenting! I have been following the debate keenly, and have been trying to figure out what my opinion is on the subject.
First of all I think I agree with Kirsty. I told the Adam on Sunday that I wouldn't be at the meeting in the evening because I was going home in the afternoon, and he looked really confused!! Then I realised what I had said! So maybe that is how home is defined.
However, I also think that home is defined in those moments when you are really down. You know the ones - when you are feeling a bit depressed and sad, and above all, lonely. I think that home is the place that you really want to be in those moments. And of course, this isn't actually about the place, it's about the people who are in that place.
So I guess for me, home is where the people you love are, where you really want to be when everything is just getting a bit too much for you to handle!
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