What Is Home - Essay Example

What is Home? A home carries varying definitions for various people. There is never one true definition of the term and yet the very word itself iseasily understood by most. For some, a home is a physical space within a large, immovable object. For others, a home is a state of mind where they feel comfortable and protected. Others view a home as wherever they happen to be sleeping for the night. Regardless of how a person defines the meaning of a home for himself or others, the fact remains that a home is the one constant thing in a persons life that he spends his whole life trying to achieve. Therefore, it is impossible to define a home in a singular definition. If a person were to walk up to me and ask me “How do you define a home?”, I would probably have to sit back and take a moment to ponder such a question. It is not easy for me to define what a home is in my personal point of view because I do not come from what could be deemed as a traditional household. One thing I am sure of though, a home to me is not merely the structure that I live in. To me, the home has more in relation to the people that live with me in the physical structure than what the physical structure is called. After all, a house can exist without being a home. A home to me is a place where I am accepted for who I am, regardless of my mistakes in life or any disagreements about certain topics. It is a place where I am respected because I am a part of the family that values the relationship of the people living within the structure. I am all about family and a place where we can gather in order to strengthen our family bonds. Therefore, a home in my personal definition and vision is anywhere that I can share a few quality hours or a quality weekend with my immediate family members. In other words, home is wherever the support and presence of my family is evident. In the sense of a physical structure, every person deserves to have a place to call his own home. After all, no person can live in the streets, exposed to the elements and dangers of the city at night. Having a home is an unspoken and unwritten right of every individual that carries life within his body. It is not a privilege nor is it a prize that one strives for. It is a given. An important part of our daily lives. A home is a safe haven, a place where even a solitary soul can seek solace, refuge, and protection during his hour of need. Therefore, each person deserves to have a home as part of his basic human right. For when other people have abandoned you, your home, as in its physical structure, will still be there to welcome you into its loving and protective embrace. Some people will argue that a home can change because people can easily change addresses. If a place seems to be unsafe, then a person can move away from that place and create a new home elsewhere. After all, a home should offer its tenants safety and comfort. A shield from the violence and troubles of the outside world. That is perhaps why some people choose to move to a gated community like Green Valley in Nevada where; “a corporate master-planned community just south of Las Vegas, would appear to be a pleasant place to live” (Gutterson, David “No Place Like Home”). To the residents of this golfing community, the whole gated expanse of their subdivision serves as their home. In its totality, the community offers its tenants a friendly atmosphere, friendly neighbors, and a secured family life. When one considers such a scenario then maybe, just maybe, it is possible to experience home on various levels. Maybe homes can actually change. I do not even want to think about the meaning of “being homeless”. If I were to become homeless, it would because I no longer have any relatives to share my life with. Rather than the more common meaning of not having a house to call shelter. Although people have long tried to make a house and a home synonymous, it has yet to happen. For a person can have a house but still be homeless because he does not have any family or friends to share his after work life with. In my opinion, being homeless means that I have no place to belong. Again, I do not mean that on the physical level of not owning a home and sleeping in the streets. But rather, it means that I have no relatives to come home to when I need consoling or to share good news with. It is not a good feeling to be homeless in that respect. It is a far worser state than simply being without a roof over your head. Speaking of being homeless, I believe that there is a connection between a home and a community. For a home is a smaller, more blood related version of a community. For a community represents the extended family of people living in a particular area. Therefore a community can also be considered a home for some people. A community is physical location that never moves. Therefore, it is quite possible for a person to return home to his community decades after leaving it. After all, a community is merely a collection of houses that help to create a semblance of unity and family in a particularly populated area of the town. Although it is enticing to merely stay in the same place for the rest of our lives. I believe that diversity is important in the life of every person. Therefore, it is truly important that a person live his life at various house addresses in order to broaden his extended family and home-life. There will of course, be other people who believe that one does not need to move away from the community that he grew up in. There is a type of confidence that one can get from having grown up in the same place, having found work there, and eventually raising a family. But that is not exactly a good way to create a home. People tend to stay put in the same place due to the familiarity and convenience of staying in the same place for decades on end ( Saunders, Scott “Homeplace”). But that familiarity and convenience is exactly what pigeon-holes people into believing that they need to stay put in a certain place in order to have a place to call home. Remember the old adage that “Home is where you make it”? That is exactly the reason why I advocate that people move around away from the community that they are so used to. That is why a home can be made anywhere, be it in a town, city, or community. The location does not matter. What matters is the familial knit that a person experiences while living in these areas. It is of the utmost importance that people remember something very basic. A house is not a home. It is the relationship that we have with the people in our lives that actually creates that semblance of home that we all strive to find for ourselves. Having said all of that. I believe that I have made my stand quite clear on this topic. A home is more than a physical structure, location, or memory. It is instead, a state of mind and emotional peace that is achieved by find a safe place to belong within the home that one creates for himself either physically or within their highly imaginative minds. A home has nothing to do with the size of the community nor the familiarity one has with neighbors or the history of the place. A home will always continue to evolve in meaning because the people themselves have evolved in terms of what they believe and understand a home to be. There is no one true definition of the word. Works Cited Guterson, David. No Place Like Home.: On the Manicured Streets of a Master-Planned Community , Harpers, 285:1710 (1992) p.55 Sanders, Scott Russel. Homeplace. Read More