Where is home? Yes, it’s your address and where you lay your head, but home means more than that.
Home is about community. It’s about feeling like you are a part of a family. Home is where you want to be.
For me, home is always where I feel the most safe and secure. Growing up, it was the smell of Caribbean food wafting through my parents’ house and hearing stories of their childhood in Barbados. It was where my friends and I shared dreams and cracked jokes. Home was where I could be my authentic self without worrying about what anyone else thought.
I was born and raised in Canada, specifically Montreal. Being raised in a West Indian household, my parents would always talk about ‘going home.’ Going back to the place where they grew up – where they didn’t feel othered by a country that didn’t accept them because of their Blackness.
So, as a child, I would ask, “When are we going home?”
