IMO view: Home is with my family

I have been living separately from my parents for almost three years.

Missing them is a feeling that is always in my heart because I only visit them for a while during long holidays. The reason for this requires a long explanation.

The warmth of being in their midst is coupled with the feelings of relaxation and spiritual enlightenment, while the world outside seems so cruel. That is a feeling that I never realized I felt with them until I moved on to another city. Currently, we only meet indirectly through technology, which helps a great deal in terms of communication.

As an ordinary teen, I liked to hang out with my friends and go out rather than stay in with the family. “I am with them all the time at home”, were the words I said whenever someone asked me about going out with friends or family. I was not mature enough to think that my family was number one. Whenever my parents did not allow me to go, I would negotiate with them until they said “yes”, or until they were cranky and said “no”.

Hopefully, this has not only happened to me, and surely it has happened to others. Although I sometimes choose friends to be with, I still enjoy the warm atmosphere of home.

One’s hometown is too comfortable. The longer I’m there, the lazier I will be. It is a suitable place to dream, to find inspiration, and to arrange planning. But trust me; it is absolutely not a suitable place to act and live out one’s dreams. At least, this is my feeling as someone who has gone somewhere else to work or study, and then has tried to come home for a while.

There are too many things that spoil me, that make me forget to work for my dreams. After being spoiled for such a long time, laziness will always overcome one’s body and mind. This is the reason why I only come back for the long holidays. At those times I can spoil myself and pretend that I have no work to do – but then I must return to reality.

Your family are the first people to meet first in your hometown. While friends are waiting to meet you and many aspects of my hometown draw me home, I choose to be with my family first and for the majority of my holiday. Remembering that they are always here, in my heart, wherever I go.

Whenever I come back, that means a lot. I come back to the home where I used to live. I come back to the rules and culture that I used to adhere to. I come back to the atmosphere of warmth and love that is full of support for me. I come back to the family where I was born and raised.

Tika Anggara
Jakarta