Home Means to Me

I was born in a countryside in 1980’s, and grew there till I finished my primary school education. And I used to think that it’s the most wonderful time I could have in my life, and the house I lived in then was the most comfortable one that nowhere could ever find.

In a scorching summer afternoon, with a bamboo with a plastic bag bonded one side, I rambled in the trees behind the house, searching for cicadas, which were always yelling up the trees all summer. Then what could I do with them? Absolutely

nothing. In fact, catching itself had already given me most satisfaction. So, most often, I just set them all free afterwards.

My mother said I was the wildest girl in the family. I didn’t care much how terribly the sun was burning outside. I was so fond of catching the dragonflies, which hanging over the backyard, with a big home-made broom. However, the result was always the bloom could cover nothing but people, because the weight of the broom was beyond I then could bear. But so what, I wouldn’t bother to take others

’ complaints, so long as I could get one, the pretty-winged creature, at last.

I didn’t care how gusts of wind in winter would sting my hands, either. When the snow dropped deep on the earth, after school, with other kids altogether, we could make great snowmen on the playground. But it was not the funniest part. The

most fun was the moment when I put snow in my sister’s neck. She jumped with squeak. I run away and she chase after me, with strings of footsteps leaving behind,and so our laughter.

This Spring Festival it happened to snow again in my hometown. Starting from morning, the snow dropped all day long, so heavy. The short pine trees in front of

our houses were all covered by snowflakes. I remember I got a handful of snow from the trees, hid it, and then splashed on my sister when she was called outside

by my voice. Then she squeaked again, and tried to splash me back. We run, and

run, in the whiteness of the world. We were back to before again.

“Do you like our new home?” till today the question still echoed in my mind from time to time, and I still remember my response then was “No.” My sister felt the same. Moving from the countryside to the town, though the living condition

got much better, we didn’t feel much at home. Because my parents shifted to do

business after we moved to the town. And they became too busy in socializing ever since. We all felt that they began to take little notice of us.

I don’t know if it’s because my sister and I were transforming into girlhood then that we became so rebelling. Anyway, we all didn’t have good face for my parents. We retorted them. We thought simply that it’s only us who were taking sacrifice. We didn’t know, as the backbone of our family, they sacrificed no less

then any of us. Who won’t wish to have a hush, regular family life?

It’s after years later that we knew that it’s out of must that our family had

moved to the town. For supporting our education, my parents must make such a change. Otherwise, we would have failed in middle school. Education needs money, that’s the plainest principle. How could we sillily take no notice of it upon that time so that we could be a little more reasonable? Could we ever be sillier?

“Do you like our new home now?”the sound appeared again in my mind. Well, year

by year, more and more I realized that it’s not where I had lived that mattered much. The most comfortable house on the earth, without my parents, won’t be

home at all. Where they are, where my home is, to put it simple.

And I think I had felt it most. While staying away, I found that Home was the only place that I might set my heart at ease, that comforted me, and that saw me through in all the difficulties. And in which my parents always stood in the middle.“Do you like your home now?” You bet I am.

Caroline