I wanna go home...

[elfpirate]

[b]I was wondering- what makes a place "home" to you?[/b]

[b]I do not have a home... and I don't really remember ever having a place in which I felt "at home".[/b]

[b]My family moved all over the damned place while I was growing up...I had seen every state West of the Mississippi River and then some by the time I was seven years old.[/b]

[b]And now, especially after my family was torn apart by conflict, I suffer from a never-ending homesickness...[/b]

[b]I've travelled quite a bit since I became an adult, and everywhere I go, I feel like a stranger in that landscape... no matter how long I've been there, I always feel like a guest... I never feel "at home". [/b]

[b]I even have a hard time saying things like"Oh, it's late- I need to go [i]home[/i]...". I always end up saying "I have to go back to my [i]house[/i]" or something along those lines, because I can't call the place I live "home" when it doesn't feel like home.[/b]

[b]I long to find a place on this earth that truly feels like "home" to me... but I've discovered that I don't really know what it is. I haven't a clue what it is that makes a certain place feel like "home"...because I've never experienced it before.[/b]

[b]So what is it? Is it your surroundings? The culture around you? The amount of family that are in the area? [/b]

[b]What do you guys think? What makes a place "home"?[/b]

[Panda]

Home to me is where I can let my hair down. I can relax and be myself. I feel at ease and comfortable. For me that place is the town I am currently living in. My parents are near by, my brother still lives here and I have many childhood friends who still hang around the ol' stompin' grounds.

Right after I got married I moved away for a while. It really just felt like I was visiting that place and it wasn't home. I just felt out of sorts there. After we move back it was like I felt like I was "home". I just feel more at ease here, more relaxed and comfortable. I was back in my natural state. For me what makes a place feel like home is how comfortable I am residing there. I've moved around this town to different houses, all of which felt like home.

On a very basic sense, home to me is the place you can wear your ugly comfy clothes, use the bathroom without worrying about how clean it is (unlike a public restroom...ewww!) and just be yourself.

[Sara]

[color=indigo]I've felt very displaced the last couple years. We moved to a new house during my junior year of high school, from the place I'd lived for the last ten or twelve years. I was upset, because I didn't think I was going to be able to get used to the new house (I [i]still[/i] don't know which lightswitch turns on which light) before I moved away for college. I was right.

There's something about [i]home[/i] that means comfort. When I think of the places I have felt love for, they are all places I've cried alone and gradually--without another person's support or presence--felt better.

A certain stretch of beach of Lake Michigan was once home to me. My grandparents' farm is home. My old house, especially certain rooms and corners, is home. The stage in my high school gymnasium was, once. When I was a little kid at my first school, there was a stall in one of the bathrooms where I'd go and cry when I was upset. It was dark, the stall furthest to the end in an already dim bathroom. Sure, it sounds silly, but I felt safe there.

There's a spot by the river, in the woods near my new house, that I think I could eventually call home. There's also a spot up here along the Mississippi that I think I could go back to and be content. I just need to go there and be by myself for a while.

So, yes. I think "home," in a very real sense, means "comfort." You can be at home among your family or friends, no matter where you go. But I think a [i]place[/i] is home when you are comfortable there, alone, even (or perhaps especially) when upset or lonely.

Geez, that sounds cheesy. :)[/color]

[Kuraineko]

My family and I have moved around a lot. I've lived in apartments, trailers, cabins, normal houses, and now my parents store! I miss the houses because there were so much room and the cabins were awesome! :cool: But sadly I don't anymore and I have no idea when or what I will living in next time. Sometimes I have dreams of my past homes, I probably won't have a "true" home until I graduate college and settle where ever my career is. :( But I still like the store.

[Sol-Blade]

Well 'home' to me is alot of things, not just a location. Home to me, is at it's most basic form, the island of Oahu in Hawaii. I was born n' raised there, for almost 16 years. Now I live in Vegas, and I too also refer to this place as home but not in the same sense as I do Hawaii. Home in Hawaii, was the place I could go back to and feel comfortable, no matter what was going on at the time. I could forget all my worries. It was also the place for me to go when I needed someone. I may not have known everyone that lived in my neighborhood, but I knew well that I could always find someone who was willing to help me or lend an ear to me.

Home, was infact the place I will always return to, no matter what may happen to it. They can demolish the houses, and/or the place can turn into a shopping plaza but that area is still my home. Nothing can change that. Home, is irreplaceable.

Sure, I could have been born in Hawaii but lived in Vegas since I was 1 and more than not, I would have called this place home as I would probably have more of an attachment to it than I do now. Home is not the place you grew up, or rather it never has to *always* be the place you grew up in. Hell it doesn't even have to be a place you've lived in or haven't even seen yet. Home is where you make it. :D

[elfpirate]

[quote name='Sol-Blade']Well 'home' to me is alot of things, not just a location. Home to me, is at it's most basic form, the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Now I live in Vegas, and I too also refer to this place as home but not in the same sense as I do Hawaii. [/quote]
[b]The island of Hawai'i is the closest I've ever known to home. I lived there as a child, and was super depressed and pissed when my family moved away from there. I still get a little misty-eyed when I see it on the telly or something.[/b]

[b]Problem is- I returned there when I became an adult, and, although I felt like that's where I belong, none of my family was there... except my eldest brother- whom I didn't really know... and didn't get along with. I missed being able to be with my [i]other[/i] brother (and the rest of my family)... but they were SO far away. It kept it from feeling like home.[/b]

[b]I think that, until I can convince the rest of my family to return there, I won't be able to be at home... because I want to be there WITH them...[/b]

[Afire]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=2][COLOR=RED]I've always lived in the same house with my family. I've never been out of the state where I live. I've never been away
from my family more that one night, so I've never been 'homesick'. I don't think feeling at home has much to do with where you live, but has more to do with the people you love and those who love you. I think I could feel at home anywhere as long as I was surrounded by love. If I wasn't...I would try to surround everyone
else with love so I might get surrounded back. :animesmil That might be what you call 'making' someplace your home. I think that your real home is inside your heart.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Skye]

[size=1]Home to me is a two-story house with a backyard that has a swing set and a trampoline and a dog and tons of sweetgum trees - oh, and the cats. :). I lived in that house for years of my life, and I remember it so well. Getting up in the morning, getting dressed, going down stairs where my grandmother would have cereal and milk or pancakes ready, and I would eat before going out to the bus stop. The bus stop was right next to the stop sign on the corner, in our front yard, and my friends from up and down the street, round the neighborhood would come and we'd wait for the bus.

I was so attached to that house; in the back yard was a pink little house, a shed, that my grandfather had built for my aunt, and it kept our bikes. In the yard in front of the fence, beside the house, Misty the cat was buried. She's probably decayed by now - that was years ago.

My other home was a small three bedroom apartment with a tiny kitchen and adjoining dining room and livingroom. Everytime I would visit my grandparents, I would be reluctant to leave. Now that I live in a house, I don't mind so much; I'm not attached to the house yet. I was very depressed when my grandparents moved to a new house; my dad and aunt had grown up in that house, and so had I.

:) I can't imagine living anywhere where I wasn't loved. Despite sibling quarells, I love my little brother, and I couldn't imagine life without him. If he moves to Massachusets to go to shool, I'll go too.[/size]

[elfpirate]

[quote name='Mouse][size=1'] I can't imagine living anywhere where I wasn't loved.[/size][/quote]
[b]Good- I'm glad that you've never had to experience that... it truly sux, and I love hearing people say that they can't imagine it, because it's assuring to know that there are still real, loving families out there:animesigh .[/b]