What does 'home' mean and where is it?

‘How often do you go home?’ – was a usual question I got from my British colleagues and neighbours, who referred to me going to visit Poland. At first it made me quite upset, because to me ‘home’ was where my family and I chose to live – so at that time it was Liverpool.  Later, I just decided to think that this was an easy way for them to ask about travelling to my country of origin.

Still, one of the most welcoming feelings I had was when I heard a British border control officer say: ‘So you’re going back home now’, when we were returning to Britain after a few-weeks travel in Europe. It was the first time I heard a British person referring to Britain as MY home.

Living outside of my country of origin I’ve had many reflections around ‘home’ and how we define it.

Recently I had a chat with a close friend about moving countries. Before this conversation I had always thought it was so much easier to move countries when you’re single, because you don’t have to worry about moving your family. But he, a single who has moved countries several times, opened my eyes by saying:  It’s much easier for you to move countries, because each time you take your little homeland – your family – with you. Whilst when I move, it’s only me on my own and a whole new world that I need to get to know and make my home. I then thought you couldn’t get a better definition of what home is. To me home is where we, the Family K. are, no matter what the physical location is. It was Poland, later it was Liverpool (yes, I still feel like saying Liverpool rather than Britain), now it’s Poland again and maybe it will be another place in the future, who knows.

This was always my philosophy and yet at some point our older daughter added a new perspective to how we see home, a perspective that eventually led to going back to Poland – but this is a story for a separate post.

And where is your home?