Where is ‘Home’?

After seven years in the north-west corner of Spain, my part of England still is, and always will be, what I call ‘home’. Narrowing down even further, ‘home’ is where I lived between the ages of seven and sixteen, even though I spent twenty five years of my life in one other place and snippets of years in others.

So why do we award the title of ‘home’ to a particular place?

For me, I believe I awarded the title to that particular place, because that was where I became a teenager, where I had my friends who were school acquaintances and where I had my first boyfriend.

Changing the subject, but still in line with the story, I went to see Mark Knopfler in concert in this north-west corner of Spain some four days ago, I listened to him play songs which I knew related to his part of the northeast of England, only twenty five miles from where my ‘home’ place is and, then reading his website, I saw remarks of ‘getting back to his roots’. He was born in Glasgow but moved to a place close to Newcastle when he was seven, went to school there, became a teenager there and visited places in Whitley Bay (the Spanish City Amusement Park (as stated in one of his songs (‘like the Spanish city to me, when we were kids’)). These places are his roots.

So, if you have lived in several parts of the country, or have moved to other countries in your lifetime, where is ‘home’ for you? And, more interestingly, why have you awarded that place this all-important title? I did read somewhere that ‘home’ can be described as the place where you have left little pieces of yourself behind and I would wholeheartedly agree with that definition.

Spain? Yes, I love the part of this country which I refer to as the outback. It’s free from stress, free from noise (except for the odd eagle that flies overhead), free from pollution, guarantees excellent summer weather every year and is a cheaper place to live than England.

But it will never be home.

Never.

Maybe jumping ship is a good experience but maybe making that jump back feels even better ….. .

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