Most people can agree that a home is a place where someone lives. Most people would state that this is a physical structure such as a house or an apartment where a family lives together and makes memories. Many people would even add that a home is a physical place to feel comfortable and unwind with others members of the family away from the hustle and bustle of a rapid modern society. All of these definitions may be accurate, but they are only a part of the true definition of a home. The claim that “home is where the heart is” has long been painted and printed on multiple pieces of artwork and displayed proudly in physical homes across the world. Yet, many people do not give this interpretation when they are asked for a specific definition of a home. Instead, they go back to the physical features of their house. However, a home is not a physical structure but rather it is an internal feeling of belonging that can cross oceans, bring out memories, and make a person feel at home regardless of where they may physically be in the moment.
Consider the number of people who are studying abroad or having to work in foreign places across the world due to the global market. These people have packed up their physical belongings and moved them from their physical structures and traveled across the world. Whether they lay their head down at night in an office or in a hotel room or even in a new physical structure, they still must look internally before they consider these places as a home. Are they able to see their family? Are they concerned for their safety? Do they enjoy their surroundings? Are they comfortable? These are the types of questions that determine if they are “at home” or abroad. These are the types of questions that enter into the mind of those who opt to move themselves from a physically restraining version of what a home is to a more open aired view of a global home.

Moving into the concept of a global home, perhaps that level of comfort is what is truly sought in regards of defining a home. A home is where someone belongs but is not required to be. A home is somewhere that a person feels is part of them and they are also a part of even when not physically there. People consider a hometown as a place they came from and a place where their physical childhood home sits. However, this does not mean that they always feel at home in the town or in the physical structure. Does this mean that they are homeless or without a place to belong? Of course not! Instead, it means that they have carried with them what it means to feel at home to a new location or, in some cases, many different locations. This is a large world and there is no rule that says a person cannot belong to all of it. Home can mean a global concept all the way down to any particular place or in the company of one particular person. However, in all of this, it does not mean one physical structure. It cannot be defined in the restriction of a space that may or may not give the feeling of belongingness that defines a home.

The reason that a home cannot be a physical structure is because physical structures do not always last. House fires, natural disasters, relocating, and even evictions can cause a person to have to reconsider what a home means to them. No longer can a person say that their home is the one with the white shutters located at a specific address. No longer can they refer to their home as it physically relates to other features in a location. The definition of a home then has to be changeable. It cannot be concrete. A true definition of a physical item does not change. A flower is a flower. The sky is the sky. However, the definition of a home changes through these life experiences. This means that a home is not a physical item and the definition cannot be founded in a physical structure. A home, then becomes whatever the person feels when they speak of the term more than what they picture in a physical location. A home, then, is not a physical place to gather but rather a way to describe a feeling of belongingness no matter what brings about that feeling.

In sum, there are many different definitions of home that can be considered as being correct. Home is a feeling of comfort and belongingness. Home can be anywhere or everywhere. Home can be with anyone or alone. Home is very vague but also very specific to the individual.. However, the primary definition of a home as a physical structure is not only false but also very limiting to the sense of belonging that the globalized world often challenges. It is not necessary for a person to assign an address to a home. It is not even necessary for a person to be able to define a home. All that is necessary is that a person is able to feel at home in a large and diversified world. In this, home truly is where the heart is so long as the heart feels at home.