What does home mean to me?

“Home is where the heart is, home is where my home is, home is where my family is, home is where my love is.” A home is never quiet, but filled with love and laughter. There is always excitement when cousins visit, and ice cream when soccer’s over. There are greasy smiles all around on family movie night, when the buttery popcorn touches our faces. A home means laughing at your family’s jokes even when they're not funny. It means encouraging them when they're sad, it means forgiving them even when it’s hard. It means trying not to laugh at their guacamole spa mask, or the new fuzzy pink bunny slippers they got for Christmas. Sometimes home can be hard to control. Sometimes familIes get in fights, but we always know we’ll find our way back to each other no matter what. “Your family is the heart of your home, and you are the heart of your family.” A family is always loud, and cheerful, always filled with love and care every night and day. They love to see what you’ve been doing at home and at school to see if you learned anything new. A family means encouraging your family and friends, it means remembering that you have a family at school too, it means that your parents always want to know what you want to be and what you will become. It means fighting over the last cookie in the cookie jar then remembering what the fight was about and just splitting it in half to share, it also means being ok with your siblings borrowing some of your stuff, it means trying not to get upset when your little sister does something you don’t like, and telling your mom or dad. Families aren't perfect but they try. “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the current that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” Love is always beautiful and bright, yet no one can explain what love means in words, but I can. Love means caring about somebody with all your heart that you're willing to spend the rest of your life together, it means kissing goodbye and saying “drive safe”. They say that people can die from not hearing the words “I love you” or not being loved at all, and sadly it’s true. We call the people that are mean to us bullies, but we don’t know their side of the story. We have civil wars because there isn’t enough love in the world, but love must always be there, because without it, the world would be full of stealing and hatred. Love must always stay alive. Homes are for everyone, not just for the people that can afford them, and that’s the idea Habitat For Humanity has. I did this not just for the joy of writing but to give a $10 donation for other people to have a home like mine. Also in the hopes that I would win $10,000 to $30,000 to give to the Habitat For Humanity closest to me. “A house is made with walls and beams, a home is made with love and dreams.”