What is Home?

As I approached University and looked at what faced me (leaving home and starting my own adult life) I became very nostalgic. What had made my childhood special and what made it home? I decided that maybe if I brought the memories with me I would always be home no matter where I lived. 

This poem was from that time in my life and captures the moment when I realized "home" was not a place but instead an idea that I could take with me.  

What reminds you of "home"?

Home

Home is the hot water bottle pressed along your neck

Home is standing still on your tree house deck

Home is those penny sweets that fizz on your tongue

Home is the doc leaf soothing the nettle that stung

Home is the movies that tell tales of love

Home is the heartache you will rise above

Home is the madness of a tired day

Home is all the secrets you cannot say

Home is dealing with the people that stare

Home is doing the things you didn’t dare

Home is having sisters that know where you’ve been

Home is having friends through the thick ‘n’ thin

Home is growing old while thinking young

Home is having your dreams yet to be sung

Home is wincing at the crazy things you’ve done

Home is realising the distance you have come

Home is the enemy you chose to forgive

For home is in your heart and the way you chose to live

New Year, New Ambition

Happy New Year!


In this new year I have new goals to achieve. It has taken me years to realize not to compete too much with other people but instead to find happiness in just being myself even if someone next to me is seemingly achieving more. If I see someone this year slightly ahead of me in my photography goals then I should learn from them and not resent them for getting there first. 


I was awake at 4am in Shanghai China (as far away from my home life as I could get), when I wrote this poem. It was a turning point in my life when I realized that I had made my own path in life and it didn't matter what my sisters, or friends were doing, my path was the right one for me.

Lost in transformation

Bored of my life, and doing the same thing

I left to find what Asia would bring

To lose myself in a world so far apart

To filter the true poems from my tearful heart

But as I stood in a crazy world alone

I suddenly realized I missed home

You can travel to places you want to see

To meet the people you dreamed to be

But the truth of it all and what you need to do

Is find some peace in just being you

In a city of people, on a crowded street

I wonder why there’s a beggar at my feet

They run around in a mad hurried dash

Pushing past the guy, who eats from the trash

In this chaotic and strange way of life

I find a hundred chopsticks but no f-ing knife

You can travel to places you want to see

To meet the people you dreamed to be

But the truth of it all and what you need to do

Is find some peace in just being you

Lost in translation is an excellent phrase

As I struggle to speak and am left in a daze

Now in a night so warm and painfully long

I realize this experience is making me strong

For I never was really me and never understood

How I’d ever feel happy doing different than others would

To travel to places was always the key

To meet the people I dreamed to be

But the truth is that, I learnt to see

I’m perfectly content just being me

You can cross oceans, soar in the cloudless air

Push to limits only others would dare

But to save your sanity and in part your health

Find a true happiness, in just being yourself