What Is Home?
A little less-known hometown singer Kit Chan first sang the ceremonious Home some 20 years ago, leaving its mark on local residents. The catch phrase (or verse, or maybe chorus, I forget):
“This is home truly, where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me, where the river always flows
This is home surely, as my senses tell me
This is where I won’t be alone, for this is where I know it’s home”
A staple of nation-building, I never really understood its appeal. I admit I found it tacky, cringey, and even lacklustre as an attempt from my home country to instil in its citizens a sense of comradery; a cheap trick brought out once a year to unify its population through song.
Now thousands of miles away from my home country, I ironically find myself harking back to simpler, easier times. A sense of belonging I never truly felt back then suddenly creeping up, a little more each day, a tinge more present with each step leading me further and further away from what I once knew as home.
Pandemic times have led to my missing the familiarity of my home country where family and friends huddled together in unison, whilst I watched from afar.
