Home

What is home?

1. Place where one lives.
2. Place where one was born or grew up.

Already the term is somewhat ambiguous. Why? Because 'home' is different for all of us. 'Home' is a feeling, rather than necessarily a fixed place. According to the dictionary, it seems that one could have more than one home...the place where one grew up, where their history or family are, and the place where one lives. When speaking about home to one of my friends once, they told me that home was them, their home was wherever they were, dependent on who they were with and the safety they felt. I guess this makes sense. Instead of being a fixed location, home is somewhere comfortable. At 'home' you can be completely yourself. You're safe from harm and around people or things that you love. 'Home' doesn't have to be an impressive structure with big screen TVs and voice-controlled lighting. I am of the belief even a box can be a home, a sanctuary for you to be at peace and reflect, for you to laugh and joke and be completely free.

Later today, I will be on a presumably full National Express coach back to what I call 'home'. I'm going back to where I grew up, where my family reside, so that I can have early birthday celebrations with them. Of course, I have come to realise that I also find myself calling university 'home'. I live here for part of the year, I am comfortable and happy here. I feel safe amongst some of the best friends I have ever known.

What's home for you? I figure it's not necessarily where your family live, where you grew up. A town or house is not a 'home' if you don't have that feeling of homeliness when you're there. Home is wherever you make it, wherever feels right. I'm lucky, in a sense, that my home is so straightforward. However, when I stop to think and reflect, I notice that it is not as straightforward as it once was. I'm not a child anymore, home isn't somewhere I run to after school to play with my dolls or cry my heart out over the latest horrific maths encounter. The meaning of 'home' is changing for me, and I know that I will soon have so many. But my true home, I believe, will probably always be where my family are. It's where I can run to, no matter how old, and get a hug from my mum or dad and the naive reassurance that everything's going to be just fine. And I know it will be, because I'll always have that place to run to, as if it were a problem just as simple as a maths problem from primary school.

Of course, the question then becomes 'What is family?' a group of parents and their children. one's spouse and children. one's children. group descended from a common ancestor. No. Blood doesn't always equal family. Families, like homes, come in all sorts of different forms. Family is not necessarily your ancestry. Family is home. My family is the more traditional kind. There's a mum, a dad, 3 wonderful yet slightly deranged offspring. There's grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. But there are other people who I consider family too. They are not blood relatives but they're still family. Like I said, family is home. Family is who, no matter what arguments occur, will always be there at the end of the day. Real family can be blood relatives or friends or anyone who you feel completely and utterly safe around.

'Home' for me then? It's somewhere you run when there's nowhere else to go. It's full of love. Not all homes are the traditional kind. Some are made up of groups of friends, some are just that falling apart backpack you take with you from place to place. But in the end, the feeling is the same. It's safe, it's happy and it's always there. <3