A Person without Home - Homeless person

I recently read a Thai essay about a person without home by Roundfinger (นิ้วกลม) facebook page and it made me realize how similar the idea was with my own idea even though I have not ever properly written it out. So, I want to use this opportunity to write about my value of home, places to sleep and traveling.

During the summer or winter break that I spent in the states, people often ask me like why I did not go home or how long I have been away from home. In the course of three and a half years I live in US (as of 1/2014), I went home twice. My first time was after graduating from high school in North Carolina and my second time was about three weeks after my second year of college.

So, why didn't I go home?

Mansueto Library of the University of Chicago (not my home, but I did spend a lot of time in there)

Because I am home.

My definition of home is a place where I can truly be myself, where I can just relax without constantly thinking about anything and, most importantly, where I can sleep safely and quietly. That is all my definition of home, and I never say anything about the the limit of the number of home one can have at one time, but, please keep in mind that, one can live at one place at a time.

I am feeling thankful that I am a type of person who can sleep easily. I can sleep under some annoying noises (my house is next to a road), with light on (already did that), on the ground (also did that during the trip), on sofa (did that for a whole summer) or any places that one could possibly sleep. This might be one reason why I never really consider just my own bed is a place where I call home.


Update: I am not sure why I haven't posted this post yet. More than 3 years have passed since I wrote this post. Here is a quick update on this topic. After 7 years in the US, I went home 3 times (including one more time that I went home after graduating from University of Chicago). Well, I am going home next months though. I am not sure when I started to set my time that I will only go home every two years, but that makes it easier for me to plan anything. Now, my mom never ask me when I will go home since she already know that the next time will be in two years. I am not sure whether two years is a perfect number, but it has worked for me so far. The one thing that I was sad about going home every two years is that I missed lots of occasions at home from my friend's graduation, my sibling's graduation, to other family vacation. But I would not change anything.

Since I moved to the US, I have lived in 5 places (4 student dorms and 1 off-campus housing). I do like the dorm-life as there are activities happening all the time and you have more chances to meet new people as people move in and out all the time. Not sure how I feel about not living in the dorm as I finish school. I hope it is as good as it is in the dorm.

Update 2 (5/10/20):
Back in 2017, I wrote an article title A Person without Home - Homeless person and said that "my definition of home is a place where I can truly by myself [...] where I can sleep safely and quietly". After this weird dream, I realized that a home is much more than that. A home is likely not a place where you can be yourself 100 percent, but a place where you get to live with people that you love and want to spend your time with.