What is home?

[Melooon]

Questions and answers pulled from the shoutbox!

[Thursday 1:31:53 pm] Melooon: What does "home" mean to people? Where is home for you? (Its for a section in my zine!)

[Thursday 1:39:28 pm] awhe: Home is where I can walk around in my underwear without fear of who can see me.

[Thursday 1:39:38 pm] awhe: For real though, I'd like to give an in depth answer but I feel as though it may be better suited for a thread, if you felt that'd be more appropriate?

[Thursday 1:59:45 pm] phexe: Home is where i can begin to relax, surround myself in my special little space and just exist  If you want longer i second what awhe said lol could be a fun thread!

[Thursday 2:05:40 pm] wygolvillage: home is where i can be cozy and quiet and not have to worry about masking (im autistic) or putting on a social performance to seem normal. home is where i can just be

Feel free to add more below! 

[zj]

home is where I do not need to worry about how I am perceived
home is a place I can relax and breathe

home is where I feel safe
home is wherever I am with them :')

[Memory]

Home is my mothers worn for the day shirt, draped to below my knees and lifted over my nose so that I can smell her on me. Home is my childhood teddy bear, the clear favourite given the fact that I remember his name from all those years ago and no others (it's "Big Fair Bear Barney", by the way. Full title necessary!). It's repeating the same medicinal tips my mother and grandmother gave me as a kid to my friends when they're ill, because if it worked for me then I hope it'll work for them! It's feeling so much joy in my heart when I'm told "you remind me of your brother", and feeling lucky to receive such a compliment. It's all those little inside jokes me and my partner share with each other, giggling away in private where the rest of the world cannot hear. Home is an amalgamation of everyone before me, and everyone before them, and so on and so forth— melded together in the big pot of who I am!

I speak like my brother, and laugh like my mother, think like my father, and love like my partner. Home is the constant love I feel at these reminders, and the safety and security that comes from them too.

On a less serious note, yeah, home is where I can walk around in only my underwear and not care for who sees me!

[shevek]

Home is where I am alone and recharging. Home is where it's clean, cool and sensory heaven. Home is where all my special interests are and where my safe foods are. When I am home, I don't have to worry about how to find my way back home. Home is where I can stop being hyperaware of my body or how I dress. I can be comfortable and don't have to worry about harassment, weather, or dresscodes. Home is where I can let myself cry.


Occasionally, though... home is also the Rapunzel tower that I just can't seem to leave, and just watch others from who pass by my windows.

[wris]

Home is where your favourite toilet is. 

[grovyle]

Lately, home is within myself. It's being confident in who I am, despite despite despite. It's forgiving, and being gentle, and taking my time. It's quiet, but it's boiling inside, roaring, pulling on the chains. It's taking care of my wings so they're ready when we have to fly - cultivating community, playing games that I love, working on projects I'm passionate about.

At some other point, home was where I could sit on the floor for hours in my underwear. It was my favorite foods, it was silence, it was a sunny Sunday with nothing to do, and the freedom + loneliness combo of going out just to wander. It was my favorite shower, my favorite oven and anime posters on the wall.

Even further back than that, it was my dog. I miss her a lot 

[phexe]

Home is my own little space, i know im safe here and when the world gets too much i can just come be alone and totally shut off from the world. Its kind of my sanctuary. No matter how short the time i always love my time at home <3

[Memory]

Home is the user interface of my Windows 98 machine.

I've moved very often in my life, but one consistency is the Windows 98 user interface. Whereever that is accessable, it's my home.

[Absentmind]

Home is wherever I can sleep easy

[SilkSkull]

Home is where you hang your enemy's head (Shoutout to the skyrim fans)

Anyway I think home is wherever you feel most comfortable, for me it's my childhood bedroom, the gas station I've always gone to and this forum 

[ToxicMolly]

  This is actually oddly relevant to my life right now.
    To me home is a place where I can just be without constantly worrying about how others see me. The things I like are there. I have my dolls, my cats and my laptop. It's the place I've lived my whole life and I could go through it blindfolded without running into anything. It's picking wild blackberries out back and sneaking out to the pond in the woods with my friend to play with dolls. It's the bench my uncle built down the road at the school's bus-stop so us kids had a place to sit down while waiting. It's the dresser in the corner of my room with Dora the Explorer stickers I put on there at age five. The tree in the yard I begged my grandfather not to cut down and proclaimed as my own.

[tarraxahum]

I am a very anxious person, so my first response is - Home is wherever I feel safe. Where my mind allows me to sleep soundly at night without jumping at the slightest noise.

It is also, indeed, as mentioned, where your favorite toilet is. That's also somewhat related to anxiety for me, actually, ahah.

So... Hm. Home is where I strive to return at the end of any experience (and what I choose over that experience if said experience sucks).

[Quinn]

my home is the city where i was born and lived up until now, as well as the city i'm currently living in!1
home is where you feel most comfortable and loved!! i have lots of friends and family in both cities.
doesn't matter how long you stayed in a place, home is where you want it to be.

[debleb]

by the time i was thirteen years old, i had moved country three times and house at least six. my home is the same home of the wandering albatross, who might in one year cross the ocean three times. the home of the swallow who in one season is on a different continent than the last. of the wolf who walks 30 miles in a day. home is where the heart is; and the heart is tied to the body.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

If love is the answer, you're home