Home: What is it to You? Home. A simple word spoken by many every day. Home. A place to some, a state of mind to others. Home. Somewhere that many are running to, and even more are running from. Home. What is it, and where can it be found? Home. It lies within us all, but sometimes is very hard to find. Home. A place sometimes hard to remember, and often difficult to forget. Home. Webster’s defines home as one’s place of residence. This seems to be a very simple definition of something that is seemingly much more complex. It seems that many have a hard time describing home and an even more difficult time defining it. The world has many quotes about home, some positive such as “Home is where the heart is”, or “Home is where you hang your hat”. Others not so much, as Thomas Wolfe stated, “You can’t go home again.” It can be surmised that Deborah McDowell felt all of these things about home. McDowell’s life raises the question; just because you leave somewhere does it cease to be home? Many people own a home, a house with which they reside, and in time it may become their “home”, the place they identify with emotionally. But does anywhere truly ever replace that first “home”, is it ever truly forgotten? In Deborah McDowell’s case it seems the answer is a resounding “no”. McDowell tries to suppress her thoughts of home, but even the simplest things can bring those memories rushing back. It seems that when trying to forget home it acts as a bully who will not leave you alone. McDowell shows us that home can be a place of a wide variety of emotion. She gives us joyous occasions that include family and friends, fun and laughter. But, she also shows us that home can at times be a place of sadness, especially when dealing with the loss of a loved one. This may just be the way things are to be, a growing pain if you will. The fun and excitement of youth supplanted by the aging of time and the lives that it takes. But are both of these emotions not equally important in the remembrance of home? Memories of home often bring forth a smile; often they bring a tear, sometimes a feeling of regret, and others a sense of calmness and caring. McDowell does a wonderful job in showing us, the reader, that home can be one thing and everything all at once. Home can be a destination, or a departure point. Many leave home, but seemingly try to take home with them. We see this with McDowell as she leaves for Indiana. She is thrilled to be leaving, and yet as it approaches the luster of leaving seems to fade and in the end she packs basically as much of home as she can take to go with her on her next step in life. She tells the story of many in this depiction of her life, as many have felt the pull of home as it becomes time to leave it behind. Of course, home also has a tendency of asking for your return. In McDowell’s case, this became an all too familiar call. Home will ask you to return, and sometimes it is for very positive reasons, unfortunately, more often than naught, it is for the same reasons that McDowell had to return. Returning home because of death is something an individual does not want to do, but has to do. And although a negative reason for returning home, death builds memories just as the joyous and fun times. In fact, death has a tendency to become a reflection of past memories, and in that way can create new ones, in a sense it can become a passing down of history from generation to generation. McDowell also shows the reader that, we never really know what we remember or miss about home. Often home is remembered at very peculiar times. Be it because of a smell, or a sound, or a picture of Vulcan overlooking the city of Birmingham. Home will jump up and swell in your heart and soul through any venue possible. Through all of your senses, home will give reminders that it is inside you no matter where you are, and regardless of what you have tried to forget. Does one ever truly leave home? The answer would seem to be yes, but is it really. Many leave home because it is the product of anger and hostility for them. But that anger and hostility is their reminder of home. A simple definition of home does not tell the true and full story of home. Home is as complex as it is simple. No matter where we are, who we are, how we have gotten to where we are, there is an undisputable truth: We all must go home, be it physically or mentally, be it for joy or despair, be it for life or death, home will find you.