You may live in a house, but we live in a home. But if you were going to search the meaning of the words house and home in a dictionary, you will find that both words have about the same meaning- “a dwelling place or a place to live in” the sentence above implies that home has an additional meaning. Apart from the confined dictionary definition, or denotation, many people associate such things as comfort, love, security, or privacy with a home but do not necessarily make the same associations with a house.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a home? Of a house? Why do you think that real-estate advertisers use the word home more frequently than house? The various feelings, images, and memories that surround a word make up its connotation. Although both house and home have the same denotation, or dictionary meaning, home also has many connotations. Home refers to a lot of aspects in our lives. Some people refer home to as the constructed house built in posh subdivision or just in simple neighborhood.
It’s not important whether you’re living in a city or suburbs. Home is more than the structure itself, home like the saying goes “home where does the heart is. ” I believe that the author sees the word home beyond the geographical location; it pertains to the emotions we associate home with. My home is filled with mixed emotions, such as happiness, joy, fear, sadness, frustrations, dreams and reality. Home makes my life comfortable from the time I came from school and head towards my house and find comfort in my bedroom.
Thus, house is where I live in, the structure I refer to but beyond those structures our house becomes our home filled with emotions, experiences, and memories. Some people find it hard leaving their homes where have they lived all of their lives, not because of the material things they have in there but the memories associated with their home. Another instance would be the victims of calamities, like the Katrina Hurricane in United States. A lot of houses were damaged because of the destruction Katrina did to them.
They were crying, sad, frustrated and furious not because of the things they had in their houses but because they felt that their lives is no longer what they have dreamt off. They were shattered, and their dreams are no longer in their hands. Home makes who we are. We invite our new acquaintances, our colleagues, friends and relatives to our home. We held numerous occasions in our home, important gatherings such as birthdays, anniversaries, thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve.
These momentous occasions would never be the same if we celebrate in any other place aside from our home. These gatherings are filled with thoughts, ideas and experiences that are so worthy to feel in our hearts. We invite certain people to our houses to see who we are and not for what we have in life. We invite people close to our hearts to our home and make them feel comfortable like the comfort we enjoy in our family. Family completes the “home” I know, and I am so glad that I have a great family that comprises what I called HOME.