Home is where the heart is By Hooria Shah

“Home is where you hang your hat.” The “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer was published in 1946, in the Broadway musical St. Louis Woman. The saying “home is where you hang your hat” appears in old writings from 1948: Home is where you hang your hat,” by Ruth L. Yorck. Because of its appearance in that 1946 song it is
one of the earliest documented instance of the popular phrase in todays culture.
But I honestly disagree. Home isnt just where ‘one hangs their hat’ home isnt just a place. Home can be anything. Home can be a feeling, a person, a moment in time. Only you yourself know what home means to you. What home feels like for you.
Illustration By Mehreen Hashmi
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Its rather poetic how many meanings home can have for someone. It could be the memory of
your grandmother , when she sat you down and braided your hair and told you stories you
listened to so eagerly. Home could be that friend you see everyday, that always makes you
smile and makes you feel special. It could be that chair at the back of your old classroom
where you sat everyday, just waiting for school to be over. Or some object, that you thought
was worthless, but became the more priceless thing you own.
More often than not, home is something a lot dont learn to cherish, and realize it too late.
Sometimes its the simple things, like maybe a pen that someone gifted to you, that you lost.
Or realising that class and that teacher you hated with every bone in your body, was the cause
of so many memories and so many amazing friends.
Sometimes its the bigger things. Graduating, and realizing you took all your time in school
and with your friends for granted, or never appreciating a loved one that might have felt like
home but you never realized it.
Of course home is your home as well. The feeling of moving out from your childhood home,
and trying to wrap your head around the concept that your leaving it all behind, is something
i dread to feel
Most of these aren't my personal experiences, my home is my friends and family. That special
feeling when I hang out with my friends or go on an outing with my family. The weird peace
and love for a friend even if were sitting in silence
So I want you to ask yourself. What's home for you?
Because home isn't always where you hang your hat,
But
Home is where the heart is.