Saturday 2 July 2011

how do you define | home?

Source: ornamelle.com via Mary on Pinterest


Facebook is amazing for bringing people together. Every few months I search for friends from childhood, people who were important to me when I was growing up. I haven't had much luck finding them, but sometimes, someone else finds me, someone who was important but I never thought to search for them because I had forgotten how important they were.

One such friend reached out yesterday. And I added her to my friends list, because I remember how much fun we had dancing to Michael Jackson's record "Thriller", and wrapping ourselves in old curtains and posing like models (and I remember how she cut me out when she started high school [I was a year ahead]. Even then, I didn't understand why people rejected me.)

As I was reading her profile, trying to glean twenty-five years of information from five basic questions, I started to think about home, or more specifically, that place that you answer when asked "where are you from?" As a child, I never thought we would leave Horsham. Primary school was at the end of the street, high school was a bike ride away, there was a shop on the corner, a park across the road, friends around the block, the perfect idyllic life of the 70s and 80s.

But mum and dad's business grew, too big for a small country town, they needed to move to the city, so we moved, changed schools, learned how to use public transport, studied, worked, went home to sleep each night, and became the people we are today. That's how I define where I'm from - it's the place where I became the person that I am today.

And now I live in Queensland, with my own family, behind this purple door, and I hope that when my kids grow up and someone says "where are you from?", they answer "mum's place, behind the purple door"

How do you define your home town, or where you're from, when asked?
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7 comments

  1. For me, Home is where the heart is.

    And my heart lies where my loved ones are. So home for me is where my hubby & daughter are - & also where my Mum lives.

    For me, I guess the word "home" is not an actual building necessarily as such - but more that's where I feel I could be whether its a town or a place or a country.

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  2. When my kids were at uni and came back to the family home at holiday times, I hated it when they spoke about 'going home' to where they were at uni. But I guess at that age, wherever you spend most time is 'home'. To me, home is where my family is, the place I feel safe and secure. I will always think of my childhood home as where I grew up, but home for me now is most definitely here.

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  3. Love the quote. I've also found a lot of old childhood friends on FB too! xoxo

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  4. Hi Cate...have popped over from Sian's.Home for me is always where I live at that moment, but like Deb, that's not so for my daughter- and funnily enough I just blogged about it yesterday. I am very excited too find someone else who starts to think about Christmas at the end of June...am thinking about your 100 days till Christmas!
    Alison xx

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  5. An interesting question - we moved around a LOT when I was a kid: a few years here, a couple there, before settling down in Maidstone where I did half of Primary and all of Secondary school - so that was "home" when I moved to Uni. My family then moved again and "home" wasn't there any more!!
    No.2 Son actually apologised to me for calling his student room in halls "home", but I do understand - for me "home" is wherever you are comfortable sleeping!

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  6. I've always lived in Melbourne so I think I'll always consider this town home. We're currently building a new house so I'm looking forward to moving into the place which we'll be able to call home for a long time.

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  7. Just caught up on some blog reading today Cate - sounds like you have been busy!

    Hmm "where I'm from" - I would say Texas, even though I was born in Mississippi, I grew up in southeast Texas and became the person I am today. However, now I call the Dallas area home and when dear hubby and I travel, we always feel like we've arrived home when we see the Dallas skyline (even though technically we've never lived in Dallas itself, just cities around it.)

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