After a few semesters in college, it is easy to start wondering where and what home really is. Some easily adapt Forest Grove as their new home. Others are caught in limbo between the home they came from and their college life. Is home a dorm full of other people? Is it friends? Is it even a place?
A few Pacific students gave their perspective of what home means to them. Junior Daniel Josefchak spent 17 years of his life growing up in Naperville, Illinois.
In May of 2019, his parents bought a house in McMinnville and moved to Oregon. He is not attached to Forest Grove enough to feel like a member of the community, but now that his family has moved, he feels like Forest Grove is the most home he has. “People feel more like home than anything else,” he said. “The closest I have to feeling like I am home is when I am with friends.”
Hillsboro native and junior Ethan Doan feels differently about home. Because his family lives so close, he does not feel like life has changed that much since going to college.
“I feel like I never really even leave home because I am one city over,” he said. Though he lives in Forest Grove, Doan feels close to his friends and family in Hillsboro, and admits his definition of home has not changed at all.
Junior Gavin Calhoun remembers what it was like going home for the first time. He asked his mom how much had changed since he had been gone, and she replied, “Nothing.” After returning to his home in Briar, Washington, Calhoun quickly realized his home was different from the way he left it. He noticed the little differences around the house like new doors or shifted furniture.
Still, Calhoun sees both his life in Briar and his life at Pacific as home. “When I think of home, I think of my family,” he said. “But being here at Pacific has made me realize my family is bigger than I ever thought it was.”
Home takes on different meanings for different people. Yet what most everyone agrees on is that home brings a sense of relaxation and stability. Whether home is found in people or places, home is whatever gives comfort and relief.
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