There’s no place like home

While doing a Journalism assignment last year my assignment partner and I were confronted by the confusing question: “Do you consider Grahamstown to be your home?” 

The Online Oxford Dictionary defines the concept of “home” as being “the district or country where one was born or has settled on a long-term basis.” If I consider that definition then technically my home would then be Bloemfontein, since I was born there and I grew up there. On the other hand I’ve settled in Grahamstown for close to two years now. Wouldn’t that strictly make good old G-town my home?

The word Home is interesting, because it has many positive connotations associated with it. It evokes feelings of safety, security and familiarity. A Home is something more than simply a House. That’s Bloemfontein. It’s safe. I know how people will react to me there. I know the streets. Almost every corner has a memory and a moment associated with it. Bloem for me is about family and nostalgia. Friends who I have known for years still live in Bloem. But Bloem is a bubble. A bubble I love very much, but still very much a safe, isolated bubble.

Another definition of the word “home” is “a place where something flourishes.” When I read this I knew straight away that it related to my relationship with Grahamstown. I’ve been at Rhodes for a little more than two and a half years and I’ve come so far in my time here. I’ve learnt a lot and experienced things I may have never experienced in my little bubble. I've met people from all over the world and from all spheres of life.

I’ve been faced with the reality of many issues that I had been sheltered to in Bloem. At Rhodes I have had people speak openly about and confront issues such as depression, mental illness, racial tensions, the treatment of LGTBQ youth, the plight of the poor in my community, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicide, eating disorders, sexual harassment and rape. Rhodes University is not immune to these issues, but at least there is a platform to talk about them. Sure, it's a bubble in it's own way, but it's opened there door to many great things in my life. 

Being at Rhodes has given me a confidence I didn’t know I had.  No matter where I go in my life I will know that Grahamstown will not merely be “that town I once lived in”, but rather I will think back fondly to my time here. Grahamstown is my home.