Personal Blather!

I'm now back in Malaysia with my parents, planning for my sister's wedding. I guess you could say I'm 'home', although that may not be very accurate. I shall explore a little of what it means to be 'home'.

The initial reaction would be simply, "Where you're from." That's all fine and dandy until you realise 'from' is hard to define. I've often been asked this question, but I find it difficult to answer. I was born in Kuala Lumpur, but spent the most of my childhood in a little town called Sitiawan. After that, I spent two years in Kuantan, on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, and the next five years (my teenage years) in Subang Jaya, just south of Kuala Lumpur. I went to study in Singapore and I've been there for the past six years, with at least four more to go, and that's just the beginning.

Obviously, "where you're from" isn't a very good way to define home. You COULD say it's simply "where your parents are", but that too poses a problem. Unlike most people whose parents stay put in one location, the nature of my father's job required him to transfer quite a number of times. Hence, we were required to move as and when he was posted to a new place. A year or two back, whilst I was studying in Singapore, my parents actually shifted to Thailand, and I literally had no 'home' in Malaysia. Would Thailand then be considered my "home"? I don't think so.

Another way to look at it was "where you spent your formative years", as in which place had the most impact in your life. This too is debatable, since most of my childhood (definitely formative years) were spend in one place, my teens (also formative) in another, and young adulthood (again transitional and hence I deem formative) in yet another. Where's home? I really don't know...

I guess in the end, 'home' is really where you feel most comfortable to let down your hair and simply be yourself. It can be where your parents are, but the environment may not be really familiar or 'homish'. It can be where your friends are, unless you don't have a place to go back to after your friends go back to their respective 'homes'. Ultimately, it would be perfect as a place where both these concepts are melded into one, which is thankfully, what I'm enjoying now.

Comfort at home, friends of old, and a celebration to be had! What more can I ask for? It's HOME!