There is one destination that we all end up at (and by all, I mean us high-flying, ‘grown-up’ university students). This place, a place of familiarity and fuzziness, is home.
Of course, home means many different things to many different people. But the common thread remains: ‘Home is where one starts from’. It is the ‘go’ square in each and everyone’s game of life. It is a feeling, a space we carry with us, constantly shaping our perceptions and personality. As we climb new peaks and enter uncharted, treacherous terrains, home exists as our 0,0,0 coordinates.
After travelling the country and/or the world, meeting new people, doing crazy things and tasting the sweet, tangy taste of freedom, home can be one of the most difficult places to negotiate. It can be relaxing but also restrictive, necessary yet nonsensical, desirable and dangerous- all in one four-walled construction. Like putting on an old Christmas jumper, it can be equally comfortable and constrictive. Home, for the modern-day, moved-away student, is a weird place.
Indeed, returning home is perhaps the most bizarre experience a university student will have. It is the other half of student life; the mostly unspoken side in which we all have to enjoy and/or endure. Although it is not the most interesting subject matter when it comes to travel and respective distinctions, it plays a vital role in all adventure stories.
This is the story of one Nottingham-Somerset commuter. This is my story.
For me, home is like stepping back in time. It exists as an ulterior realm, where the forces of nature operate in reverse and change is a foreign, unfriendly notion. It is a place where the faces and features of my childhood remain, but I feel completely different. Sometimes it seems that if the whole world imploded, my village would just stand there, unchanged, its Victorian clock continuing to tick by the hours, months, years.
Perhaps my case is a special one due to my home being in the middle-of-nowhere English countryside. But the phenomenon of out-of-placeness, of returning to familiarity like slipping on a pair of ill-fitting shoes, is, I believe, part of a wider student experience. Home continues as we float in and out of its presence, evolving against a static backdrop.
I think home persuades you to act different, in a silent and subtle kind of way. You fall back into old habits, your university-self replaced with a younger, more novel version. Granted, this is largely the result of living back with your parents, the providers of food, clothes, warmth and affection. However, it is also a form of survival. Like a chameleon, students adapt according to their environment. This is part of our constant re-invention and growth as human beings. On return to university, we will squeeze back into our Nottingham hoodies and puffer jackets, ready for the next phase of our lives.
Home, on a seasonal cycle, is part of studenthood. It is something that we must navigate, celebrate and not resent, as we journey on to the land of adulthood.
Sources
https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/home
http://www.justbringthechocolate.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/home-sweet-home.jpg
http://animalsadda.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Chameleons.jpg