Home Sweet Home

My home town!

With Thanksgiving coming up right around the corner, home has been on my mind a lot. I am an out-of-state student here at the University of Michigan. I am from Encinitas, California (which is considered to be in San Diego).

Before I go any farther: Yes, I realize I am far from “home”. And yes, I do know that it gets really cold here. I know that I am not ready for winter, and yes, I have been told multiple times that I will die during winter.

These are the first things that people from Michigan or the Midwest say to me when I mention I am from California. It was cute at first and made for a good conversation, but now, since I’ve been living here for a few months, it just annoys me.

I understand that I am not from around here, but I live here now. I have been here through the humidity, rain and thunder storms, and now the snow. And guess what: I am still alive! I am learning how to layer and walk through snow without slipping. I am even liking the snow! Shocking, right? But the snow is just so beautiful. It makes everything seem crisp and clean. I am starting to get used to the weather, and I am learning to love Ann Arbor. It is becoming my home.

When I was reading Marc Tracy’s article, When is Football No Longer Football, I thought about what home really meant. In his article, he questions what it means to play football. Is it tackling? Is is the kickoffs? Is it the risky way of the game?

Tracy complained about the NFL and how they are changing the rules and taking away football. He goes into detail about the certain rules that have been changed and explains how this is taking away the essence of football. At the end of his article he poses the question, what makes football football?

This open ended question made me think about the meaning of things, and in my case, it made me

Showing how I used to base my definition of home on geographical location.

think about what home really means. Within the past couple months, my definition of home has drastically changed. I used to think of home as the actual place my house was and my local town in California.

Since being away from “home”, I have learned that there are many ways to define home. Personally, I have adopted and made Ann Arbor my home. I feel like my dorm room is my home. I have my friends around me and feel comfortable. I even caught myself saying to my roommates, “When are you guys going to be home?”

Once this happened, I took a step back and thought about how I defined home. I realized I have started to consider home somewhere where I feel comfortable and a place where I am surrounded my people I care about.

A shot of the law quad–a place I hope to find myself in 3 years.

U of M has become my home.

I think it is important to understand that people define things differently. Whether we are looking at the definition of home or football, people are going to have different opinions. Having this understanding will help prevent many personal and useless arguments. Once people understand others’ perspectives, people become more accepting and thoughtful. This could be a very useful trait to have in our provocative and argumentative world. Hopefully, people will come to realize this and accept others’ opinions. It could really help prevent a lot of the issues we have today.