More Than Just A Place Essay, Research Paper
More Than Just A Place
It takes some people a long time to get there and others no time at all. It is a place where a person should feel relaxed and comfortable, in harmony with their environment. It is a place of refuge and its doors should always be open. It can be where you go to after a long day of work or what you land on to win the game for your team. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines it as one s place of residence, the social unit formed by a family living together, or a goal to be achieved (356). This wonderful, yet sometimes hard to find, place is called home.
In middle English it was the hom , in Old English it was ham , and in Old High German it was called the heim (Merriam Webster, 356). The concept of home has never changed throughout history, it has been an intricate part of human life. Cavemen may not have known what to call it, but they sure knew what it was. The home is a place of residence, where one lives. We seek shelter from the storm there, whether it is the weather or just one of life s little snags. This comfort zone also provides us a place to put our heads at night, safe from the evils of society. A child s math homework is finished on the kitchen table, while his little brother learns to walk on the hard wood floors. In this magical place our worries disappear and we can relax. Coming home from a bad day at work, a woman puts her key in the door and walks inside. Upon setting her briefcase on the rustic kitchen table and picking up the remote to watch her favorite sitcom, her troubles leave her. She becomes involved with the comical story of Jerry Sienfeld, and not with her boss s booming voice telling her how she filed his documents in the wrong place. She feels safe and comfortable.
We have our mail delivered to this place, and everything else we order. People know us sometimes by where we live or where our home is. For example, if a person was to have a large, extravagant home in a very nice neighborhood and we knew nothing else, except their house, we would probable assume these people had a lot of money. We make our homes like ourselves, they are very different, from the artwork to the architecture, they say a lot about our personalities. When you walk into someone s home, a lot comes out. Not being able to find any dust on the counter tops may lead one to believe that this person likes to clean or that they have a weekly maid come in and straighten things. Finding a recycling bin in the garage, it is obvious that theses people are conscientious of the environment. These are only a few examples of how our
The home can be defined as the social unit formed by a family living together. So the home is not a place, or is it? It has been said that the home is where the heart is , but where is your heart? The home is also, perhaps, where your family is. A man who has a family does not feel at home when away from them. This is not only because his heart is with his family, but because he is somewhere that is unfamiliar to him. It cannot be called a home unless you are comfortable in your surroundings. A first year college student who has moved away does not feel at home in their new place. Yes, it is where they will be living for the next year, but their heart is not there. All of their things are in this new dwelling, but it is unfamiliar. This goes to show, a house is not a home. We have to live there, and grow to love it, make memories there, and possibly raise a family in it. A house is merely a building in which a home is to be constructed. Once the contractor has finished, the work of making the house a home has only begun.
The home is a goal. Yes, when we are born we are given a home, but eventually you have to find one for yourself. This can be a painstaking process especially when you have no concept of what your home is. A home can be more than where a person stays. It can involve finding a job or a calling in life. Your calling in life must suit you if you are ever to be comfortable, which is a fundamental part of being at home. Even living in the home you have always lived in may not feel like home to you if you have not found a job you enjoy. This may cause a person to move from place to place, and town to town, searching for a comfort zone.
The word home also describes a place of origin. Salmon are drawn home every spring to spawn. The home has a certain pull towards it for most of us. We always return home for one reason or another. Some people say it is because that s where their roots are, others say it is because you want to go where everybody knows your name. The pull back towards our origin is strong enough for some, like the salmon, to move back to there home town to raise a family. We become very attached to our homes because we have spent so much time there and made so many memories. The home can be defined many ways, from the actual structure that is your house to the people living there. It is what makes us who we are. Home is the place we can express ourselves. It s the place our parents teach us, its the place we move away from, and then, it s the place we dream of finding. It is the American dream, to have a home, or is it to get there?