Home

Many a times, I think that the word above has been used too loosely. Whenever you tell someone you are going HOME, everyone will interpret that you are going back to where your family lives since most of us live with our parents in Singapore. In addition, you store your house number as HOME or HOME SWEET HOME.

Watch the below video and I would like to share with everyone a different perspective of home, at least the way I decipher HOME:



I love Westlife's songs all my life. Of course they are not the original composer or singer of this song. I have the original version of this song as well but I guess the way Westlife related it touched my heart more.

If you have been away from home for a period of time, as in you lived abroad or went overseas to stay for more than a month or two, I believe this song would have brought back memories of your stay overseas, when you were away from your loved ones. For me, during the times when I were in Stockholm, though I did not literally miss home as much as I would have expected, I realise that every time I encountered some unhappiness, I thought of HOME immediately and all the care and support that would have come about if I were not that far away.

After 22 years of existence, I have come to interpret HOME from another perspective. It is not a place where you sleep, eat, drink, watch TV or relax but more than that. It should not be merely a physical venue but rather a place where your heart gets the rest and comfort that it is desperately seeking, after a long, trying and frustrated day or period out. Some people would request their home to have this, this, this and that facilities, air-conditioner, games, internet access, big kitchen, comfortable sofa blah blah blah. Yet I feel that if your home is full of warmth, care and concern from people who truly care about you and vice versa, those material needs somehow become immaterial. Those people who constantly seek the material comfort are people whom I deem feel the lack of warmth in their house, which is why they chose to substitute material comfort for genuine care and concern.

Just like when I was in Stockholm, my room had nothing but a kitchen, table and internet access. I had no gigantic, comfortable and leather-skinned sofa, no spacious decorated room, no bolsters, my favourite soft-toys or the so-called spring mattresses that ensure you a good night's sleep. I was away from all my favourite clothes, my mom's definition of clean and white clothes that are hand-washed by her and her well-maintained house. The TV in the room had none of my favourite sequels, serials or entertainment shows and soccer. Yet, at the end of the day, even a year after I left Stockholm, I still deeply miss that place and will always call it my HOME.

So, I hope in the near future, if I ever get to set up my own family and a HOME, I wish for it to be a place full of genuine care and concern for everyone that belongs to it, away from all the hassles of nagging and conflicts and of course, somewhere where every of its member will deeply miss and proudly call it their HOME wherever they may be. With the above all said, that is provided I do have a home of my own in future. :)

Now ask yourself, is your so-called HOME now a place like what I have just mentioned?