What does “home” mean to you? To me, it is not just about the coziness, cleanness and tidiness, but a dwelling place together with my family offering security and happiness. This is where I began my own unique story and found love, hope and dreams.
On July 25, 1998, I was born into an ordinary family in a prosperous city called Hong Kong, which is located in the southeastern tip of China.
The word home is metaphor for the greater culture to which we belong and represents the influence of that culture on our way of thinking and acting. The sum of all of these forces then, defines who we are as individuals and serve to define what motivates us to action, our nature.
Home: the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.
The meaning all depends on the situation, and what personal connection we have with it. What one person think about when they hear the word home, might be quite different from when someone else does.
Home is a mindset. With definitions of “home” varying for so many people, there is no way to tie it to a single, concrete definition. People from both extremes, those who stay and those who wander, derive pleasure and contentment from their choices of “home”. Tying a definition to the word “home” is similar to attempting to define what makes a human being feel comfortable. The words, while simple on the surface, mean very different things to every person making them impossible to define completely. So what is a home? Home to me is a location, a sensation, and a state of mind that is combination of four different aspects: shared happiness, the present moment, passion, and the ability to adapt.
When some people think of home they think of the place they go to after a long day, or the place they sleep at night. There is so much more to make a home a home, home may not even be a place; home may be a person. My home is my family, my mom in particular though. She is a fighter, a great cook and an even better role model.
Home has different meanings to each individual around the world. It could be an emotional place, where happiness or joy is felt. This could happen when you live away from your home at a college. Where you are living, at the college, is not your home. Instead, your home is back where you lived before, with your family you love. Home could also be defined by a physical space, such as a physical house. To some, this is simply what a home is, providing nothing else but shelter. Finally, a home can be defined socially. For example, when you meet up with your friends after not seeing them for awhile could bring comfort and warmth to you. All of these things come together and collectively make up what a home truly is. Home, simply put, is a conglomerate of emotional, physical, and social aspects.
Neil described home as, “where I can go back and relax after a really long day. Home is where I can be myself, where I can be naked physically and emotionally, where my family is, where I can close my eyes and relax without a single worry (except for my mom telling me to go clean my room).” I feel like a lot of people can relate to Neil’s definition because it reminds one of the feeling they might experience once they get home from an excruciating work day, so they can now just kick back and relax. Kelsey, my best friend, described home as, “where I can just hide from the world and be lazy and no one will judge me and it’s beautiful” or “where I can get taco bell in two minutes.” Her definition made me laugh, because it’s true that where we live you don’t have to drive for longer than two minutes to get some Taco Bell, but where she goes to school she would have to drive for about twenty minutes. Ryan described home as, “ wherever I feel safe and like a can go to sleep comfortably,” he also said that home isn’t his house because he doesn’t like being in his house. Ryan doesn’t like being in his house because he doesn’t get along with his family all the time, a lot of people can relate to this because sometimes people can feel more at home when they’re out on their own. On the other hand, when I asked my friend Martina she responded by texting me her address, “57 Walter DR, Woodbridge, NJ,” meaning that she felt the most comfortable with her family surrounding her in a familiar place. Chris said that home is where he gets support from the people surrounding him, similar to what Martina implied, however different than just texting his address. Ime said that home is where she walks in and all of the stress leaves her body because she can relax with the people she loves the most and have a home cooked meal; Ime’s definition is very much
Simply stated, the inner-workings of war are unimaginable to a civilian. They cannot begin to fathom the effects of isolation from humanity that soldiers face once peacetime is declared. Civilians cheer and take pride in the victory of war, but in result, it is extremely difficult for them to understand the long road of mental recovery for the survivors after the war ends, as Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, explains, “The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over” (O’Brien 31). After being isolated from civilian life for prolonged periods of time and constantly being exposed to traumatic experiences of death, it is nearly impossible for soldiers to relate with others who have not emotionally encountered war firsthand once they return home. This disconnection between ex-soldiers and civilians allows for a difficult and emotionally-draining transition back into daily life, where someone newly departing combat can feel distant and misunderstood by those who have not witnessed atmospheres of intense violence.
For myself, the word "home" represents safety, acceptance, warmth, and comfort. Home means so much more than a physical
Home is a place where one naturally lives or is located, or a point of origin. Although these definitions may display many similarities between a house and a home, a home is so much more than a house. Home is a place someone can call their own. A place where they don't feel pressured to be someone other than themselves. Home can be a country that you were born in or raised in. It can be a place away from the constant noise and stress of everyday life, where you feel welcome. Home might even be a future destination. There is no limit to the amount of homes you can have throughout a lifetime.
As a U.S. army dependant, my life is always restless and very eventful. I’m lucky because my father and stepmother both serve and work hard to fight not only for the U.S., but also me and my brother’s safety. I feel that as someone who has a serving soldier (soldiers to be exact) it is a responsibility to respect the nation and our values because of the hardships, lessons, and experience I have gone through, and to worship hard work. When you have to leave family, and go fight the fight, it isn’t easy on the people you love nor even you, but it makes it easier on you to know that they’re ok, and that they’ll be home, because they’re fighting for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, something that we Americans hold dear to us. When
Every person is in need of a home. It is a place that feels natural and welcoming. It instills a sense of belonging. A home doesn’t have to be a specific dwelling, for it has many different definitions and meanings for each individual. What is universal is the feelings one receives when they are in their home. It is a place that protects them from the struggles and obstacles that life inevitably thrusts onto people. It is a safe haven. For me this particular feeling is bestowed upon me every time I step foot into my grandparent’s house. My grandparent’s house is my home and it will forever fill me with the unconditional love, happiness and security that my family has given my entire life. My heart is there.
In the dictionary the definition of home is a place where a person is born and grows up. My definition is a place where a child feels safe, secure, loved, nourished, and grows and develops into the person they will become. Saint Mary’s Institute describes this perfectly. S.M.I. has been my second home for the past 9 years.
If someone were to talk about a “home”, there could be many different things that would come to mind. Home is defined as “a house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household” (“Home”). Depending on the person and the type of environment they grew up in, you would most certainly get many different answers. In my opinion, home isn't just a place that you live in, but a place of peace and acceptance, and a place that you share with your family. A good, simple quote that represents this is “home is where the heart is”-Pliny the Elder (“Home Quotes”). There are many aspects of a home that can all play a role on your very own personal identity, like concrete things such as the building itself and the geographical location, to even the more mental things such as the social environment in your household. Everything that makes up the environment of your home, plays a very big role in the way it shapes your life and personal identity.
It is strange how we hold on to pieces of past while we wait for future. As people move ahead in life, they starts being nostalgic for beautiful memories of past and in these memories the majority is of about home, may be because it is one of the most scared place for a person in their life. But before starting about that, we should think about, What is home? Where is home? We don’t have a fix answer or definition to this question because it depends on person to person what they think about it, what their point of view is. But in general, Home is our parents, home is a place where our parents are, a place our feet may leave but not our heart. Where we grew up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to. It is undoubtedly a place of comforts and not only physical comforts but mental comfort as well and the joy and peace of knowing that we are at the most secure place of the world called