Losing my identity
An Irish guy came round yesterday for a friendly chat. Knowing that i'm leaving the country after being here for 9 years, he asked something which I haven't thought of for a while - where's home for you?
The obvious answer will be Malaysia. But...(click here for more), he continued about how he left Ireland to work in a company in York (a small town in England). He was home-sick for the first 2 years and when he finally went back to Ireland, he didn't feel like he's home any longer. Friends moved on. The atmosphere changed. You don't feel belonged any longer. So he went back to York and stayed for another 11 years. But still, he won't call York his home. He's now in Scotland, and he won't call that home either.
Although Ireland-Scotland-England is not that far compared to Malaysia-Scotland, the distance seemed immaterial. You can leave Penang for a life in Kuala Lumpur and still feel the loss of identity. Is this true for you?
It does beg the question of what is home? Is where you were born your home? Is home a place where you grew up in? Is home where you spent most of the time working? Is home where you spent most of the time playing? Is home where your love one is? Is home where you finally able to think for yourself and ask these questions?
I like to believe home is wherever I happen to be. Home is an internal state of mind where I'm comfortable with myself wherever I am. Home does not depend on the physical location of the body. It depends on how I respond to that physical location and how I respond to everything in that location, be it people, traffic, social life, work life, transport system etc. I'm home if i'm able to perform tasks consciously and without fear. E.g. i'm home if i'm able to buy groceries even though i don't know the language; i'm home if i'm able to get from one place to another without getting lost.
Can this definition be called home? What's home for you?
The obvious answer will be Malaysia. But...(click here for more), he continued about how he left Ireland to work in a company in York (a small town in England). He was home-sick for the first 2 years and when he finally went back to Ireland, he didn't feel like he's home any longer. Friends moved on. The atmosphere changed. You don't feel belonged any longer. So he went back to York and stayed for another 11 years. But still, he won't call York his home. He's now in Scotland, and he won't call that home either.
Although Ireland-Scotland-England is not that far compared to Malaysia-Scotland, the distance seemed immaterial. You can leave Penang for a life in Kuala Lumpur and still feel the loss of identity. Is this true for you?
It does beg the question of what is home? Is where you were born your home? Is home a place where you grew up in? Is home where you spent most of the time working? Is home where you spent most of the time playing? Is home where your love one is? Is home where you finally able to think for yourself and ask these questions?
I like to believe home is wherever I happen to be. Home is an internal state of mind where I'm comfortable with myself wherever I am. Home does not depend on the physical location of the body. It depends on how I respond to that physical location and how I respond to everything in that location, be it people, traffic, social life, work life, transport system etc. I'm home if i'm able to perform tasks consciously and without fear. E.g. i'm home if i'm able to buy groceries even though i don't know the language; i'm home if i'm able to get from one place to another without getting lost.
Can this definition be called home? What's home for you?
posted by Shang Lee at 8:29 am | Article's link
3 Comments:
I think I will have to agree with you in the sense that home is wherever I happen to be. Like yourself I have been away from my original home of KL to Cardiff, and have been in Cardiff for the past 8 years. Even though throughout the 8 years I have been moving around frequently within Cardiff, but Cardiff is still considered as my home (maybe a second home).
I will always consider KL my original home. So Cardiff will always be my second home.
Maybe one day when I leave Cardiff for somewhere else in the world and I no longer have any 'attachments' in Cardiff, then Cardiff will cease to be my home.
i agree with your point to some degree.. but to me, home is where your family and friends are.. home is where you can be yourself... home is where you can be comfortable carrying out your daily routines... and having ppl of the same culture and background.. home to me is where i was born and brought up... for it is where your fondest memories of life is created and carried with you forever... of course if you have been away for a long time, going home to your home country and readjusting to the different lifestyle and routine and way of life not just of yourself but also of the society will be hard... but i believe in life, everything is a matter of adapting.. and given you were brought up in your home country, it would be your natural instinct to relearn and reacquaint what you think u have forgotten or let go fairly easily.... that is only if you choose to be flexible enough to allow room for change..
Whle preparing to build a homestead raft for my girlfriend and I to retire on it occurred to me that it would be an ideal way to provide cheap housing for people. The rafts will be built on plastic or steel barrels and electrical power will be supplied by undershot water wheels. With a garden on the roof they could even grow some of their own food. The rafts would be an item that we could build and sell to homeowners along rivers to enable them to get off the grid. I will be building my raft as a factory that can be used to mass produce rafts and I have enough tools to keep 100 people working.
Jerry stcfarms(at)netexpress(dot)com
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