Beyond the gate By Enaya Ahmed

Home By Enaya Ahmed

For all my life, home had been the brick-walled house with a huge garden and a towering gate. It was the family dinners, the birthdays, and the early mornings when everyone was rushing out to get to the car on time. Home was where I had a wall just for my drawings,

some sitcom blaring from one room and laughter in another. With time, I've come to realise that is not exactly what it means. With growth comes new beginnings, and I discovered home isn't restricted to those familiar white walls; it is wherever I carry the people who I love knowing they love me too. It’s the relatives who welcome me as if I'd never left,

llustrated By Sophie Haroon

where the walls may be different, but the love is there in every action. It's the late-night conversations that would go on under the moonlight till the crack of dawn, movies watched with popcorn and pizza, critiquing and questioning all the characters' ridiculous decisions; with the people I wouldn't change for the world. Now, home is different. It's more than just a house, it's a feeling that will accompany me through all ventures of life. It is more than just the blood you share, it is the feeling of belonging and understanding. I know wherever life takes me, I will always be home.