What Home Is For Me

When I unlock my door and step inside I feel refreshed and welcomed. The fireplace keeps me warm. I change into my warm clothes, lay in my warm, fuzzy, soft bed. I can pick up a book and start to read. I can walk into the living room, jump on the huge soft couch, turn on the TV and chill out until my parents get home. A few hours later we sit down as a family at the table for a warm meal, play board games together until it’s time to go to bed. I realize how lucky I am to have a home, food, and a loving family as I reflect on the videos I’ve watched about homelessness. I go to bed filled with happiness. My friend has been in debt since this pandemic has started. I try to help and comfort her. Then recently she told me her parents are getting a divorce. They can’t afford the house that they live in. She has to find two really cheap houses. One for her father and one for her mother. I wonder where they will go if they can’t find any houses that are cheap enough. I try to do what I can to help but it is hard to do what I need to do when I am only eleven years old. My family is going to offer to let her stay at my place if things don’t work out. I really want to share my home experience with her. Now I’m going to return the favor. I want her to have a comfortable place to live. Somewhere she feels safe. I want her to have a good life. Even today at school as I'm writing this I realized that I'm lucky to have loving parents and to have the home that I do. I love my home from the food to the people in it. That's what home is for me. A safe place. A warm place, A place I want to help others have. That's what home is to me.