Home away from Home

When I first moved to the US it was understandable that I was disorientated and lost. Nothing was familiar to me at all. It wasn’t until I first stepped onto the soccer field that i felt some sense of comfort because no matter where I am, I know soccer, the field will never change on me and the rules are universal. I am home when I am on the soccer field. I have realised that there is nothing wrong with making my home wherever i need it to be. i need a home in the US, so im going to make Caldwell my home, im going to accept the offer of my friends and have their homes too. We are not limited to one "home", i guess thats why they call it a "home away from home". i dont need to be homeless for the next four years, i have a home. not just one but four. have you ever thought what your home away from home is?

"Life's a voyage that's homeward bound'

Home is comfortable. It is safe, accessable, and accepting. Home is familiar and unique. Home is all this and so much more. It is impossible to describe the exact feeling one feels when they are home because it is different for everyone. Home has a different meaning for each individual person, and no two people are the same. Home doesnt have to mean a house, or the place where you spent the longest part of your childhood. As a child i moved around a lot, but i never considered myself "homeless" or felt as though i was missing out on that homeliness feeling. It may be because of this that my idea of a home veers away from the conventional "4 walls and roof" concept so many people have adapted. If you were to ask me now what comes to my mind when i think of home i would answer with words like Australia, beach, mum, paddington (my cat), palm trees and numerous other things. this is my personal view on my home. like i said, everyone's is going to be different. what's your idea of home? what are the words that come to mind when someone mentions home to you?

The Speed of Time

With only 2 and a half weeks left until im on my way back to australia my excitement is almost too hard to contain. I cant help but notice how the countdown until the day i leave is dragging on impossibly slow. The last week felt like a lifetime, and im sure that the 3 and a half weeks that im in australia will go by in the blink of an eye. When i think about it, i notice that we spend most of our lives counting down to something, whether it be going home, going on a holiday, the coming of age, or little things such as the start of a sporting season, that party on saturday night or catching up with a good friend. I wonder what would happen if we just stopped for a moment, put the countdown aside and focused on what was happening around us right now. What we all fail to realise, including me, is that the time we wish away will never be available to us again. if we spend our lives wishing away the days what will we have left? My home will always be there, my mum and my cat and my friends arent going anywhere in the next 2 and a half weeks so whats the problem with me sitting back now, enjoying my first snowfall and these 2 and a half weeks of life that i have? why do we count our lives away? before we know it, we will be wishing to be 18,19,20 and 21 again and it will be too late.

“Home is where you can say anything you please, because nobody pays any attention to you anyway”

Home is more than just a roof over your head with four walls. People can search for their home for all their lives if the feel discontent. People write plays and make movies about home. They even sing about it. Below are a few lines from a couple of songs that focus around the concept of home. I believe each one focus' on a different aspect of home. this just shows that no two peoples idea of a home is the same.

Home - Michael Buble



Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home

Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Home, Let me come Home
Home is Whenever Im with you
Home, yes I am Home
Home is wherever Im with you

Lalalala Take me Home
Mama Im Coming Home

and, perhaps, my personal favorite for obvious reasons :)

I've been to cities that never close down
From New York to Rio and old London town
But no matter how far
Or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home

I'm always travelin'
And I love bein' free
So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea
But my heart lies waiting over the foam
I still call Australia home

All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world
Away from their families and friends
Ah, but as the world gets older and colder
It's good to know where your journey ends

And someday we'll all be together once more
When all the ships come back to the shore
Then I realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home

No matter how far
Or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home



Home is where the money is..

What makes a house, or an apartment, a condo, a cabin, a home? Everywhere we look, there's another expert telling us the answer lies in something we don't have, from fancy bed linens to an interior decorator. What we would all benefit from learning is that the feeling of being "at home" can't be bought. When we think about what it is exactly that makes a home, family, the feeling of confort and safety, none of it can be bought with money. The most important things are what we have right in hands already.
I have noticed that we worry a lot about what our home looks like instead of how it makes us feel. That costly renovation or those silky sheets matter less than whether our living spaces nourish us as human beings.
I worry that people dont see whats really important in making a home, instead, spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on materialistic things. Have we as a society lost sight of whats really important in making a home? or is money the new way to go in making a home?

There's Snowplace Like Home

why is it, that no matter where we end up in our lives, we always end up searching for home? what is it about this place that keeps bringing everyone back? that everyone longs for when they're away. homesick, what is it about home that we're "sick" for?

Temporary Home?

This weekend my roommate is taking me "home" to Pennsylvania for the weekend. I asked her two questions that i thought would help me find a place to call home for the next 4 years that i'm here. (yes i am still fearful of being "homeless" for four years) one was what makes her "home" a home? she answered as i thought she would, "my family is there" that traditional answer for everyone. my next question was what i was really hinting at with the first, i asked her where my home was in america. i seemed to have her stumped for a moment. she looked at me and then simply answered "at home with me, its your temporary home". I was intrigued! A temporary home? does one even exist? and if it did, why hadnt i found one yet? i wanted to make sure my roommate wasnt crazy so i asked my other friends the same question. to my surprise they all answered with their respective homes. apparently i have three different homes that i didnt even know about!
But before i accept these relatively unknown places as my "home" i have to wonder if i really can truely adopt them as my home? MY family isnt there, im not going to walk in the door and have my cat Paddington run towards me, im not going to find my bed there, in my room with my furniture. so what is it that i can find in my friend's homes that will allow me to have a home? can i really have a "temporary home", more than that, can i really have 3?