Home is a click away; the button on the left of your classes in canvas, the e-ticket flight for the holidays, the tap of Dorothy’s bright ruby shoes. At minimum, home is a space. By definition, home is one’s place of residence. In attribute, home is the center or heart of something. On a personal level, home is an intuitive process particular to your journey, a looping ironic realization of impossible emancipation, and the inevitable hallway formed between your four walls to that of another. It would be impractical to expect to understand the definition of home without touching on the impressible, yet overcooked concept of the home within ourselves. Moving further, it would omit the importance of stepping outside our narrowness to empathize between those more fortunate, less fortunate, and in between. It is this exact ability for the diverse ideology of what a home should be, that allows us to appreciate the susceptible relationship between a house and a home, and advocate for everyone to own a minimal form of both.
The term home is very commonly used by people to name the place where they live and it is closely related to a sense of security, comfort, belonging and calm. Home spikes our curiosity for what realms outside of such taken-for-granted stability, only to draw us back into its nurturing arms. Home is where you are your authentic self, where the departure is worth the earned distinction it holds with the word house, seeing as a house refers to a physical space, while a home is closer to a feeling. Dangling on the idea of home as a feeling; feelings are subjective, and home, like feelings are specific to you and your experiences. In addition, home as a feeling is universal, since everyone respectively has somewhere they feel at home, and like feelings, a home is culturally binding, barrier breaking. A perfect example of the magnetic force of home, Todrick Hall’s journey out of his hometown, what he felt was an unstable and scarring holding place, led him in search of a home where his dreams led the way. The irony in his journey is he mentions from the beginning that “And no matter where you roam, there's no place like home”, which holds incredibly true as he returns to his roots towards the close of his story. More notably, the artist mentions a “quick click of the heels, and I feel I’m whole again”, referring to the sense of unity that home ignites within us all when we are seemingly at war outside of it, a global phenomenon. Home is the problem solving center, that is why we always come back to it, whether at the end of a long day or at the start of a new life.
To truly consider what having a home represents, it is almost necessary to consider the paradigms of being homeless. The mental layout of a homeless person typically depicts a dirty, uneducated, drug abuser asking for spare change on a street corner. Consequently, the unjustified assumptions made about that person include adjectives like lazy or addict. Homelessness is less than likely due to laziness, and overwhelmingly due to factors like gentrification, institutional discrimination, mental illness, domestic abuse, and unaffordable higher education. An eye-opening demonstration of the range of individuals categorized as homeless by an L.A. Times film titled On The Streets, showed how one graduate student lived out of his car to ration his money and can continue to afford getting his PHD. Statistically, the video mentions that more than 56,000 college students identified themselves as homeless, according to 2013-14 Federal Student Aid Form (FAFSA) data. In another case, an entire community called Slab City provides insight into the promising land it provides for the homeless to lead an ‘off-the-grid’ life within Los Angeles. Almost inspiringly, many of the homeless interviewed did not even consider themselves homeless and reflected the idea that by their own standards, they have a home. Their mental layout of a homeless person is more of a one-way street towards changing your mindset and embracing the cards dealt by constructing that feeling of home no matter where they may be. A home, to millions of these civilians, is a tent on any given street, a close group of peers, or the freedom to live and let live on any given property. It is communally understood here, that having a home requires connections beyond one’s metaphorical four walls. Thus, the only requirement for home being a connection, even if just with oneself, someone that is homeless should lead such a detached and unresponsive life, no matter where they go, they would fail to find a sense of belonging.
Separating both terms, house is the physical place where we developed, grew and generated memories; provided safety in the inclement weather; was built of bricks, rods and cement. It is a house where we find shelter and protection for the body. On the other hand, a home may be made up of the relationships with those who live in that house, is built by love, communication, values and education of a family. By etymological definition, home refers to the place where the fire is ignited in a house, the shelter for the body, soul and private life. This explains that a house without fire would not be a home. The simple construction and blueprints a house and a home require are very different, a house marks a certain time in a place, whereas the home is built day by day with responsibilities and teamwork in whatever space, without a determining lapse. We can enjoy a strong, ventilated, well-lit building, built with materials suitable to withstand storms and earthquakes, but if there are no ties of love, unity, respect and values in its foundations, no service would be done by its walls. On the contrary, if in a home there is communication, tenderness, respect, trust, collaboration, but a lack adequate housing, there is a risk that this force will collapse due to the lack of good building materials; whether physical or psychological considering health is closely related to housing or a natural disaster. The powerful impact of the home without a house can be demonstrated by the families of Iquique, Chile after one of the biggest ever recorded earthquakes hit and subsequently a tsunami, damaging hundreds of homes. Families were forced to move into the inner cities, and to lessen infrastructure damage or inadequate housing, which was becoming a massive problem for the government and its people. Alejandro Aravena, a Chilean architect, set forth a housing movement allowing families to move into what they termed ‘half-houses’. Aravena’s project provided these families with a choice, either continuing to fight nature and rebuilding the houses destroyed along the rivers and oceans, or to obtain more than they could ever afford before for much less by relocating into these predesigned homes. This project provided affordable housing for hundreds of families and took into consideration the uniqueness of every home, as the family’s home grows or changes in need, they would fill the other half of the house in time. Not only did it take into consideration the families, it handled the relationship between infrastructure and nature in a manner that benefitted both parties. Ideally, the fusion of both a house and a home is the best mixture to make everyone a key piece in building a better society. In return, a better society leads to more environmentally and mobile conscious movements towards advancement.
You will just know when you know; a phrase ever echoing within the walls of a home, because you find where you belong. Sometimes our work, or wanderlust, drives us to leave our original home, like Todrick Hall. Even when naturally you leave your home, you take it with you where you go, building onto it, because you are the beginning of your own home. Having a home is not just having a roof, as we discussed; forming a home demands improving physical and mental health, that is why we journey out and back in. Recovering the relationship with the community and environment is also important towards the feeling of home, without these connections we can find ourselves boiling in the true meaning of homelessness. Finally, identifying the bare necessities for adequate housing, so that the connections within that home do not fall apart, is what Alejandro Aravena provided for so many Chilean families, and what needs to be taken into consideration when providing for populations. Every home is not the same, but to some extent, the same essentials are necessary for providing that feeling of home. If we want to advance and cultivate a better society, we must start by expanding our definitions of home to more than just a place, but rather as a unique process deeply rooted within, as an irrepressible caretaker, and as the predesigned hallways we recover when we step out of those four walls. When home is only a click away, it can often be taken for granted the feelings and growth it nurtures and its everlasting influence on our lives.