What is Home When You’re Away?

Home, is the reason for the epic journey through snowfall, adversity and delays that you endure for the Holiday season.

Home, is the place you yearn with your creature comforts and familiar mattress even before the same Holidays end.

Home, is where I’m unceremoniously told to go by those proud and patriotic of their nation.

Home, is the same nation I have

contributed to and helped build through

the fruits of my labour.

Home, is where I’ve left, war-torn, plagued by famine, corrupt and where I’m persecuted for my beliefs. Home, is where I’ve come, to be safe, nourished, accepted and protected.

Home, is where newborns are taken by exhausted proud parents. Home, is where elderly parents are placed by their overworked children who can no longer cope.

Home, is at the top of the page, the main menu, the screen from where you start. Home, is your goal, where you need to get to complete the level, your final destination.

Home?

By Marco Figueiredo

During my ten days in Scandinavia, I was surrounded by the notion of home and what it meant.  I wouldn’t be back to what I called home for four months.  I hadn’t even arrived at what would be my home while abroad.  For the next ten days home would be memories and my house in Pennsylvania farm country.  In a little over a week, home would be comprised of a single sized bed in a cramped apartment above Oxford Street, London.  For others, however, their definition of home would vary.  The Sami people of Northern Scandinavia and Russia were one example we encountered of people who have constantly been pushed out of their homes and constrained by borders.  For every person, the meaning of home is different or has no meaning at all, but we all have a story and a way to express it.  This symposium gallery allowed each person to reflect on the question, “What is Home When You’re Away?” and then be photographed outside their temporary home.

Frankie Kennedy

Montreal, Quebec

I have spent a large portion of my life relocating and therefore I have constantly had to teach myself how to adapt to new environments. There are pros to a scenario like this, such as my high level of independence. However, when there are pros it often means the cons are not far away. It was not until the question “What is home when you’re away” was asked that it hit me. Do I have a home? Well, due to my frequent moving I don’t consider myself to truly have a place that I call home. I more so see home as a place that can provide me with enough solitude to feel at ease, allowing room for me to readjust. Overall, I’d say I’m homesick for a home I haven’t found yet.

Isha Battu

Livingston, New Jersey

There’s not a specific place.  It’s both my house in New Jersey, where I grew up, but also Syracuse.  I don’t think I consider London my “home home” yet, but I think by the end (of the semester) it will feel like home.  I feel like the thing that reminds me most of home is in the flat.  Whether you’ve been at school or you’re interning or you’re traveling, I think the best thing is just opening the door and you have a space that’s yours.  Even when I’m traveling, no matter where I am, even if it’s a super cool place like Iceland or Barcelona, I always look forward to being able to come home and put my slippers on.

Julia Sheehan

Surbiton, England

Home for me is my parents’ home in Surbiton. It’s a very normal semi-detached house in the suburbs of London, but the house has always been in my family.  It is where we’ve celebrated every Christmas, Easter, birthday, etc. When I’m traveling, home is London and a cup of English breakfast tea.  Whenever I was at university I couldn’t wait to get back to the hustle and bustle and bright lights of London. Home is also my family and friends, things that are familiar to me and the area I was brought up in.

Niya Klayman

Freehold, New Jersey

Home for me has always been in the same part of New Jersey. Since we moved into my current house when I was very young, it has been the only home I’ve ever known, even though I lived in another one before. Moving to a new place, especially transitioning from a suburban area to a city, definitely left me a bit skeptical as to how I would adjust. However, after being here for just a month and a half, I can honestly say my flat and my friends have become a home I look forward to returning to every day. Living in a new place with new people has given me a greater sense of what really makes a home and I look forward to the remaining time I get to share with them in this beautiful place.

Alec Rovensky

Long Island, New York

Coming back from Portugal last weekend, I was eager to come back “home” to my own bed after rapidly hopping from one hostel to another on our four-day school trip. On the way back however, I realized the paradox that “home” has become, since London has become my temporary dwelling. It has become my home away from home, and I realized that this place, which felt unfamiliar a month ago, has become a comfortable space to return to after a long weekend abroad.

Meghan Callahan

Brixton/Stockwell, London, UK

This depends on where we are. When I’m in the USA, home is London. When I’m in London, home is the USA – except it isn’t, since my parents passed away and I no longer go to my hometown. Instead, I go to Montana where my sister and her family live. But the city that feels like home is Florence, Italy.

Morgan Trau

Cleveland, Ohio

I guess in a physical sense, I live in London and that’s my home base for the time being, but I don’t consider it home because I consider home where I feel comfortable and where I feel myself.  Safe.  My home in London is with my friends.  In this case, living in London, home is definitely a feeling, but this, to me, is a flat.  It’s an apartment.  It’s not a home.  But when I’m with my family or when I’m with my friends in Syracuse, that’s home.

Caroline Cox

Old Lyme, Connecticut

As I get older, I spend more and more time apart from the home I grew up in, and I’ve had to learn how to make other places feel comfortable. I’ve spent two semesters abroad, last spring in Strasbourg and now in London. I’ve made these foreign cities feel more like home by connecting with them.  I think to connect with a place you have to learn to appreciate it. In France, I learned to appreciate how the lifestyle was different from the one I was used to. For instance, I learned how stores were not open on Sundays, because it symbolized French values. They felt Sundays should be reserved for family time and rest. Here in London, I’ve learned to appreciate how international the city is. From the cuisine to the people you see on the street, there is immense diversity. When I’m back in America, it’s those kinds of things that I remember and sometimes miss. Having that connection and appreciation for a place is what makes it home for me.

Maialie Fitzpatrick

Westport, Connecticut

I consider home to be my bed. So if I’m in a place that’s not normally home to me, I try to make my bed as comfy and cozy as I can so that it reminds me of home. I spend a lot of time in my bed, so it’s really important for me to feel warm and comfortable in that space. No matter where I am, as long as my bed feels like home then I feel at home.

Eugenia Francis

Dominica, West Indies

I originate from Dominica in the West Indies so for me, I have two places I call home. Whenever I go to Dominica, I always say, “I am going home”, yet in Dominica, I always refer to home as London.  It would be really hard to, but if I had to pick one, then it would have to be here in London because this is where I grew up.  Most of my family is here, and for me family is home.

Sunny Balkin

Long Island, New York

For me home when I am away is my mom. I know that sounds cliché but I truly feel like no matter where I am, if I’m with her, I always feel like I have a bit a home with me.

Phang Lim

Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Since I was young, I have often had a hard time telling people what my true identity is due to my complicated background. Moving to a different country every few years, my definition of home is very different from anyone else. Moving to London wasn’t a rough transition for me as I am very adaptable to different environments and culture. London, a place that was so unfamiliar and unknown to me at the very beginning, instantly turned into a place where I can feel the most comfortable with.