I attend Mhairi Bowe's 'Is there More at Home than the Heart: The Psychology of People and Places' lecture this evening in Sensation Science thinking that it would be relevant to my design studies activity but it wasn't however it left a thought in my mind as to what I would class at being 'Home' since I am living away from home for my period of study in Dundee.
Home to me has always been Airdrie, where I have lived my whole life, where my family and friends are. Until I moved away from home I always thought of myself as being able to go anywhere and not miss home so long as I had my friends with me, just like being at school camp, but this has since changed and I have never felt so home sick.
I coped fine last year being in halls as I felt there was always something happening, some sort of drama kicking off in the kitchen or just someone popping in to say hey so there was no time for me to sit and think about missing home, but this year is very different, being in your own flat has alot of good points but with this comes so much responsibility.
Feeling at home for me means being comfortable in my surroundings and feeling like I belong, and there is no where in the world I feel like I belong more than sitting at the dinner table with my mum dad and sister listening to our 'Sunday Dinner' music and enjoying each others company. Some one mentioned in the lecture the importance of belongings making wherever you are feel like home, but to me having my room in Dundee full of all my stuff doesn't make me miss home any less if anything its more because along with all my belongings are the memories I have from back home but this for me works both ways as when I am home for the holidays my 'Dundee things' look out of place in my room. When I go home for the weekend or an over night stay I do sometimes feel like a guest in my own house as I am living out a suitcase and my room doesnt look like my room anymore. I seem to over the past 2 years accumulated doubles of lots of things, I cant have a frame of me and my best friend in Airdrie and not in Dundee so I have one in each and the same with less important things such as pillows and calenders.
No matter how well i settle in Dundee or how much I get used to my routine and surroundings nothing says home to me more than driving into my town past my old dancing school down the road I used to drive to school and driving into my housing estate seeing mum and dads car parked on the driveway, opening the front door and shouting 'hey' to which my whole family come running down to greet me with a hug as if they hadn't seen me in years and we talk for hours and hours......
Sitting here right now in my freezing cold flat in Dundee thinking about all of this I want nothing more than to jump in my car and go home and see my family, unfortunately I can't so thank goodness for technology because this means that my family are only ever a phone call away and I can speak to them whenever I want.
To me Home is family, memories and a sense of belonging and not the house I live in or the things I have in my room, its the times spent making memories with the people I love most in the whole world, in the place I call 'My Home.'
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