Feeling at Home

Early in Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, she writes, “Each winter / just as the first of the snow begins to fall, / my mother goes home to South Carolina” (27). She continues by writing that “Ohio / is where my father wants to be / but to my mother / Ohio will never be home, / no matter / how many plants she brings” (27-28). Through these passages in “Each Winter,” Woodson brings up the concept of a home. In many ways, a home can refer to a physical place, or a place in which a person feels positively reminiscent in the past, content, or where they belong. This proves to be the case for Jackie’s mother in this passage. For her mother, home is in South Carolina. She must be back in its physical space in order to feel that she is at home, regardless of the problems that that physical place has. While Jackie’s father feels most content in Ohio, this is not the case for her mother. Physical things, such as plants, cannot make Ohio feel the way that South Carolina does for her—the physical location is essential. Like her mother, Jackie begins to feel a special connection to South Carolina in the novel. Despite the racism that persists in the state, it is a place where she is in many ways happy, as there are individuals who treat her respectfully. In Brown Girl Dreaming, the story shows the ways in which a place that feels like a home can become an inseparable part of a person, such as of Jackie’s mother.

            Throughout the semester, other works that we have read treat the concept of a home differently. For example, in A Tale for the Time Being, Nao greatly misses California, which she identifies as her home. However, while Jackie’s mother cannot emulate the feeling of a home in Ohio, Nao learns to do so while in Japan. She finds that through meditative practice she can feel at home no matter where she physically is. This is not to say that the novel does not place any importance on location, as it does, such as when Nao’s father feeling at peace in the hills when dropping off Nao to see Jiko, however the novel argues that home is a feeling that can be emulated in other places as well. This is likewise true in The Martian. Mark misses home, but in a sense, he finds a way to feel content on Mars in order to survive until his rescue.

            Home, whether tied to physicality or whether treated as something that can be emulated, as a feeling, holds important sentimental value to many people. This can be observed especially at colleges, as students depart to go home for the holidays. For example, many people will say that while Loyola feels like a home to them, they cannot wait to go home for Thanksgiving to eat a home cooked meal and to sleep in their own bed. While they have a bed at college, it is not always associated with the same sentiments as one in their parents’ house. There is something special about going to a place where one is familiar, and to spend time where much time in the past has been spent. When doing service at Tunbridge, it is interesting to learn the way that young children, specifically 3^rd graders, talk about home. One day during recess, one of the young girls asked if I was going home for my Spring Break. When I told her that I was, and that home was all the way in New England, she seemed shocked. She claimed that she could never imagine moving out of her parents’ house or even an hour away. She said that there was no way she could leave home for school. While her opinions may change as she grows up, this shows that, especially to young children, home is very important. It is a comfort, which is often associated with a person’s family, and cannot always be emulated. Perhaps this is why many children will experience homesickness when they are away from their house or parents, even if only for a night. While it is possible to find happiness and to create a new home in a new location, it is not always easy. Working at a summer camp, for example, there have been many times in which I have had to make a homesick camper feel comfortable enough to be at "home." While this can be possible and one may be able, like Nao to feel at home in a different space, one also may feel the need to physically go home, such as is the case for Jackie’s mother who goes back to South Carolina. 

          Time spent in a location can make it feel like home. Time away from it can often feel different, and can make one want to return to the place they call home. Home means different things to different people, whether it be a physical location, where certain people are, or other factors, it creates a feeling that most everyone at times wants to experience.