A Place to Call Home

“Turn it down or turn it off!” The words my mother used in order to say the music is too loud. Even though my mother did her very best to keep a happy home it worked in some cases, but home never compared to school. At school I was “home” and my friends were like a family. I spent all of my time and energy at school and by the time I got “home” I was too tired to care about anything besides restarting my routine. School delivered a sense of belonging, hope, and safety. I couldn’t stay at “home” knowing I only had one source of motivation so I stayed at school where success and motivation was key from everyone around me. “Home” is school, “home” is a desk, and “home” is where friends are.

School provided us with almost everything we needed to succeed. I would say that the most important tool to success is a desk. At this desk you weren’t only a student, but you are a student destined for greatness. In every classroom and office there is a desk for each person to sit, collect notes, do homework, and plan for success. On the first day of school teachers would have a set seating chart, so that students didn’t get to sit next to their friends and get easily distracted. Other occasions you teacher wouldn’t tell you to sit on the floor and take your notebook out, but they would tell you to sit at your desk and prepare to take notes. In “The Meaning of Home”, John Berger starts his excerpt with the dictionary definition of home such as, “The term home (Old Norse Heimer, High German heim, Greek komi, meaning “village”)”. School is the village that Berger speaks of. An old African Proverb says that, “It takes a village to raise a child.” School was built on the sole principal that with the help of home, family, and community a child would be raised to be the best they can be.

The school is surrounded with positive atmospheres.

I used school to escape stress and possibly depression. I could never say if I was actually happy at home or school was what made me stronger to play as if I were happy. School and home are both supposed to make you feel safe, happy, and at “home.” School could never fully suffice for “home” because you could not sleep there at night. At home you might have all things necessary to prepare for another day of school. Shower, washing, eating (most times) are things you do at home if you could because you could not do them at school. Some people do not have certain options while at “home” like eating, sleeping, being happy, feeling safe, or even having a home.

It is important to differentiate the difference between school and home. Home is where your biological family is, and school is where your friends, teachers, and peers are.  In the words of Miranda Ward, “What I want is to say something more interesting about this place than, “here is where I’m from,” but I don’t know what, yet; it’s still too foggy – it’s home/not home, mine/not mine, complicated/not complicated (para. 11).” Sometimes there is no feeling as to why I would not feel home at home and why I would feel at “home” at school. I know the difference but it has a stronger impact on me because I can feel the difference. I feel like at home you cannot grow as much as you want to as a person because you are contained to the same environment and raised by similar personalities. At school there are various amounts of personalities, you do not know what’s going to happen next and you will not be able to predict why it would happen. The more time I spend at a certain place the more I feel at home. I feel like school is a natural home for some people. We grow the most when we are surrounded by others that are growing just like we are.

When we learn something new are brains get bigger so we have more space to store the information in turn we get smarter. The desk represents our brain. Even though the desk cannot grow any more from us sitting at it and learning it supports us physically. For some people a desk is a place to rest your head because you did not get enough sleep the night before because you were studying late or playing your favorite game at “home.” School has a way of making or breaking ones future. One can either grow at school or fall behind because they are not getting the support they need. School is important for those who do not know anything more than sadness and pain because there should always be someone there to help through the difficult times.

“Home” is everything you can ask for and then some. Being at home is motivation, strength, and courage to learn something new every day. When one feels at home they get comfortable and are able to open up, become who they are meant to be, and cherish the importance of being able to call a place home or feel like they have “A Place to Call Home”. I am able to call school home. I cherish every moment that I am able to receive an education because I know what my family went through to get me here and I know that not everyone has a place to call home. “Home” is school, a desk, and it is where my heart

The outside of the school. It is also known as the triangle.

is.