As students make the transition from high school to college and beyond, the concept of “home” begins to transcend its physical boundaries, shifting into a dynamic state of movement and discovery. College housing promotes an experience geared toward exploration. For some students, it is their first time living with a roommate, their first time being away from their hometown, or their first time in this country. Each year at Oberlin offers an opportunity to reevaluate one’s perception of home, whether that is due to living in a new dorm, finding a new group of friends, or discovering a familiar feeling on campus. Many struggle with the task of finding solace in a new home base, maybe even in multiple. While settling into these home bases, students ask themselves: What exactly is home?
When moving away from their hometowns, students are challenged to redefine the physical and situational settings where they find belonging. Double-degree first-year Kevin Hernandez reflected on how he conceptualizes a home.
“A home, for me, is a place [where] I can unabashedly be myself without having to worry about all the other distractions and everyone else around me judging me,” Hernandez said. “[Home is] someplace that I can go to after a long day and recharge. Sometimes you just need a little bit of downtime.”
In periods of radical adjustment such as a student’s first year in college, there lie obstacles in finding that place to recharge: perhaps the most apparent is the lack of a permanent, familiar residence. The belief that one should feel immediately at home in a new dorm can give rise to frustration or anxiety if that is not their reality. A 2018 study examining homesickness in college first-years found that 94 percent of students reported at least some homesickness during their first ten weeks of college. Hernandez shared his belief that in finding a new sense of home, students can direct their attention to passions and activities that they find the most joy in.
“The one place that I am able to completely call my home is where I’m practicing my instrument at the Conservatory,” Hernandez said. “It’s just me with my instrument doing something that I love — practicing and using music as an outlet for emotions, reflecting, and thinking.”
Another area of adjustment during college is a changing community. Daily interactions with classmates from different parts of the world, roommates with different backgrounds, and professors with varied areas of expertise constitute a vibrant, evolving environment. Finding one’s place in this environment is another essential aspect of defining “home.” College first-year Henry Thacher expanded on this perspective, recalling characteristics of the people that he grew up with.
“People I’ve met here have reminded me of people I knew back home, which may well be the case wherever you go, or it might be because back home, a lot of the people I knew were the type of people who would come here — very curious and laid back,” Thacher said.
College fourth-year Namu Makatiani shared a similar sentiment.
“Home is any environment or space I’m in that feels safe,” Makatiani said. “[Since coming to Oberlin,] I feel like I’m trying to value the interactions that I have with people more. Before, I would consider a home … to have been a physical location. Over time, I’ve extended that to include friends, especially with a lot of the changes in my life over the years. I value the importance of my inner group, and they have really made me feel like my full self, in a sense.”
When displaced from one’s closest community, memories of that community may serve as reminders of home to integrate into an unfamiliar space. Through this, remembrances of loved ones and cherished objects are revisited, renewed, and reconstructed. Memories may manifest as feelings of security and comfort. For College third-year Arya Nade, memories of loved ones, as well as the present community, serve to strengthen the feeling of home beyond a physical home base.
“In general, [home] is where you spend a lot of your time, but it becomes more of a home when you’re surrounded by people who you care about in that space,” Nade said. “[I bring reminders of home through] the memories I carry with me of the people I care about, making sure I still talk to them whenever I can.”
While the concept of home changes drastically throughout college for some students, for others, it stays the same. As students navigate personal and academic growth during college, they may find themselves on a journey of change that parallels their hometown through the passage of time.
“I’m fortunate enough to have lived in the same place that I grew up in since I was a child, and my family is still there,” Makatiani said. “If [I] ever think of [home] as a hierarchy, I feel like that would be the base. It’s changed over time, which I feel like makes sense because we’ve changed over time. It’s also a little bit saddening to see some of my childhood kind of be destroyed, but it’s nice to see it’s changing with me. It’s bringing on a new form, whatever that form may be in the future.”
