Last night I attended a talk at Sensation on Psychology of the Home. The speaker spoke about this in some detail, mentioning why places seem to be so meaningful to some but not to others. For some individuals home is there house, its where they grew up. For others it could be their town, their community or indeed their country. One women commented that she had travelled her entire life and that home wasn't any one place, but it was where ever she was staying at the time. It was any building from a house to a hotel room where she could lock the door, take her shoes off and relax. It was where she was comfortable and in control. Another example that got raised was how some people living in America, for instance, may have Scottish routes. And for them an image of Scotland can be very powerful, even though they may have never been to that place, and perhaps never will.
This got me thinking, where is my home? Its a very easy question for me to answer. Its my house, my town that I grew up in, its where my family are. A much harder question for me to answer is whether this will always be my home? I have stayed in Dundee for three years now, and even though most of my belongings are here its definately not home. I don't think it would matter if I had no possessions in my house, it would still be home to me. It holds to many memories, shared experiences to not mean something to me. I do wonder though, when I grow up and have a family of my own will that place, that community, that house become my home? Or will my heart always be in Leven?
So where is your home? Is it your house? Your community? Or do you not have any sense of emotional attatchment to one particular place? Do many places conjure up memories? Where do you see your home in the future? Will you go on to live in the same place you have done your entire life or do you want to escape what you call home?
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