Homeless

What does the word home mean to you? Does it involve material things, privacy, family, a sense of permanence? In your journal, explore your ideas about this word.

• The word home means many different things to me.
• First and foremost, it includes the physical and material things: the actual building itself, the stairs, the rooms, the floor, the shelves, my possessions, my family's possessions, etc. For this case, home can be defined as a safe shelter that provides me the environment for everyday living, such as a bed, a kitchen, and a bathroom, and allows me a place to store and access my personal belongings. An example for this definition is the apartment in Hsinchu, Taiwan that I currently live in. Just like I described above, my apartment includes rooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living room, a dining area, and a working area (for me to write my homework).
• Secondly, home is where my family is. The feeling when I am with my family can be describe as a sense of belonging when I am with my family and other kinship. Of course, this includes my distant family or family living abroad as well. For example, I feel at home when I am in my apartment with my family, when I go to my grandparents' house a basketball court away, when I go to my uncle's apartment one floor below mine, my other uncle's apartment one floor above mine, or my aunt's apartment three floors above mine, or when I am in Tainan with my grandparents from my mother's side, along with my cousins.
• The last definition of home is more personal. For me, home doesn't have to be a permanent place or involve a sense of permanence. This personal definition of home for me is a place where I feel comfortable being in for a long time, a place where I refer to when I say I need to "go back", and a place where I have a strong sense of privacy and can do whatever I want without having to worry about other people. This definition includes quite a lot of different circumstances, but each of these circumstances fall under this personal definition for home for me. One recent example is when I went to Singapore. The hotel room that I stayed in feels very much like home. It is comfortable, I have the privacy that I need (even though I have roommates), and I refer to this hotel room when I tell other people "let's go back home".