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Home Beyond its Four Walls

 When asking someone to describe home, it is unlikely you will hear that same description from someone else. Home is so unique to everyone. The feelings associated with the place itself, the people there, the things you do, the life you live. Home is so individual.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I live in a bigger town and even though I moved a few times, I always stayed within that town. While each house looked different, the connotation of the word home was always the same. This is because it was my family and our relationships, my dog, the places I went. Whichever house I lived in, my favorite moments were still sitting with my dad outside while he would cook on the barbeque, or watching a show with my mom to wind down in the evening. 


Home is also our traditions. One of my favorite representations of home is having everyone over to our house to host Christmas Eve. The day of the house is busy, filled with all of us cleaning, baking, cooking, and playing Christmas music. When my family comes over it is filled with laughter and banter and little jabs at each other that come from a place of love. 


Every year I make the Christmas cookies for our Christmas Eve party. Two years ago, just as I was about to start baking, our oven broke. I had close to 60 cookies ready and waiting. After my parents tried - and failed - to fix it, my dad suggested I try using one of his grills. At first I thought, “you’re kidding right??” but he explained how it worked and quickly taught me how to grill. So, I sat outside Christmas Eve in the freezing cold grilling our family Christmas cookies, but my dad laughed and kept me company the whole time. 


More than anything home is about the people there. What you consider home is important, but who you consider home is even more important. I am lucky enough to have grown up in a great family and feel blessed that my house is a safe space for me to be my complete self and be taken care of and loved. For some people though, home can be friends, a significant other, a pet, or for those who live alone it might be the peace that their four walls bring them. 


When I am away at school it is moments like my traditions that make me miss it the most. But, at the same time, sometimes the quiet privacy of home is something I crave just as much. I love my life at UT, but it is a pretty busy one. Sometimes on weeks that feel the busiest, I crave even the mundane parts of going home, just hanging around the house and relaxing.


Our goal is to raise money to pay off the Miracle Ridge property a Hand Up for Women has bought. The women here are given that privacy, security, and even community, they might not have had prior. For some, it is the first time they have ever had that level of privacy and been able to consider a place home. With how important home is to me, I want the ladies at a Hand Up for Women to be able to experience something similar if possible.



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