In this class I feel I have learned about so many different ways that people can experience home. I have also learned a lot about how a home can not only be a house that you live in but also a place you visited or spent a long period of time at. A Home can also be a place where you feel safe like Jeannette explained in The Glass Castle how she felt at home when she was looking at the stars and the rocks in the desert. For me this was something new because I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and spent the first 7 years of my life there and loved every second of it. Then I moved to California when I was in the second grade. Of course I was super sad I was a 7 year old boy that just left all his best-friends but I eventually got over it. I spent the next 11 years of my life there and for me I always felt like Baltimore was my real home. As I grew older I finally came to the conclusion that California was more of a home because I had spent more of my life living there and had more memorable moments. Then came the day when I had to move out and go to college. Leaving home is always hard but I quickly found a new home in the state of Oregon. Up until this point in my life I always thought you could only have one home and it had to be a house but from taking and learning from this class I can surly say that I defiantly have more than one home and they are three separate states.

The book Fun home written by Alison Bechdel she writes about how she grew up and what she had to deal with while growing up. As she was growing up she could tell that she was different but also that her Dad was different. Her Dad was not like an ordinary Dad, he was intimidating, impatient, not affectionate, and quick to punish. He also was not very manly, but would still do the manly duties like repair the house and mow the lawn but was also into floral patterns and laced curtains. Alison described her family as dysfunctional and she did not enjoy her time at her house. Alison’s Dad always had her and the siblings doing chores instead of having fun and playing around the house. Kids in the neighborhood would always comment on how her house was a mansion and how her parents were so rich but she did not see it like that. She looked at her house like any ordinary house because there was no time to enjoy the size of the house. Alison did not even look at her house as her home. She compared the Family Funeral house, that her Dad worked at as more of a home because she got to enjoy herself with her siblings when her Dad was working. This was extremely weird because at the funeral home people would be coming in to set up a time and date to have a funeral for a loved one. This just shows how truly awful it was being at home for Alison because she enjoyed being at the Funeral House rather than her own house.

In this day and age a home is recognized as a house or an apartment or a place you have a significant memory or experience. Humans expect curtain items to be present in there lives in order to feel normal, Jeannette and her siblings didn’t have these items and were never accustomed to them so they relied on other elements to make them feel normal. These items could be related to a home, a school, a friend, a car and even money. Jeannette and her siblings never really experienced any of those items growing up, due to the fact they were always moving around the country.Jeannette and her siblings ended up finding other things to make them feel normal/excepted. Like I said in my other blog post, on Christmas Jeannette’s father could not afford average Christmas present so instead he took Jeannette and her siblings out to the desert and had them a pick a star they wanted. I related this back to a possible home for Jeannette because in the book it expresses how much she loves the stars and the mountains. This shows that humans need shelter but shelter can be described as two different things. In a form with a roof over your head or place or thing that will make you feel safe no matter the circumstances you are in. We has humans have our “needs” and “wants” mixed up and most think without a house and/or stable living situation, you will not be able to succeed as your life progress. Jeannette proved this wrong as she grew up with virtually nothing and also with a dysfunctional family and still went on too attend college and have a successful career.

While reading the Glass castle you will find that Jeannette and her siblings don’t have the same definition of a home as the average kid living in America does. Jeannette and her slings have never stayed in one house or place in their entire life, they have always been on the move, so there parents can avoid taxes. From the constant traveling there outlook on the word “home” has been obscured. They don’t say it but in this point in their lives they don’t compare the word home to a house, they relate home to a place where they feel safe or something they enjoy doing or seeing. At this point in the book I would say the closest thing to a home for Jeannette is when she is with her family and when she is in the desert looking at the beautiful rocks and minerals. In the book it talks about how they don’t believe in Santa because Jeannette’s parents are not wealthy enough to supply gifts on Christmas every year so there is no point trying to trick them. When Jeannette was five on Christmas her parents did not have the money for gifts so instead her dad took them star gazing and told them to pick out a star they can call there own. This part stood out to me because this could also be another form of a home that Jeannette refers too. Staring into the sky looking at the stars could be more of a home than an actual house or town. Growing up this way has formed them to be less materialistic and this allows them to associate home with family and the nature instead of a house or state they live in.

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