Meaning of Home

Imagine this, you are forced to leave your home making your home a dumpster on the street. Unfortunately, 150,000 to 300,000 Canadians are facing this tragedy at the current moment. Take a moment to realize how lucky we are. Not having to worry about shelter or switching a home from dumpster to dumpster every couple days. Hello, my name is Zach, and I will be telling you about what home means to me. My first thing I am going to talk about is love. Think about it, all the people on the streets see hundreds to thousands of people walk by each and every day, like they don't care. I have my parents and grandparents and friends supporting me with my struggles and triumphs. I think I am lucky that I have people like that to help me with every step of the way. Secondly, another thing I think is important is safety. To live on the streets, it just isn't safe. Here in Winnipeg, it can get down to –35°C. Beyond –32°C us humans can get hypothermia in 10-15 minutes. They don't have coats to bundle up in, or a nice warm cozy house to come home to or even a nice warm hot chocolate from time to time. Cold isn't the only challenge they face. The snow here is crazy. For a third of the year Winnipeg has at least 1 cm of snow on the ground, that means for a third of the year it is below 0°C. Sometimes it snows more than 15 cm in just one night. Lastly health is especially important as well. If I were to get just something as simple as the flu, I can take an Advil and rest in bed. If they get hypothermia or frostbite or something bad like that, they can do nothing to help it. Sometimes they just, die. Died with none seeming to care. 5,800 to 46,500 homeless people die in the US each year. In conclusion I talked about what home means to me. These things include love, health and safety. I hope you think about how lucky you and your family are to have a warm healthy home. Thank you for reading.