What Home Means to Me

Allen Lovelace

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. The noun, refrain, means a line that is repeated, often in a poem or song. Scan the text and find the refrain in this article. (Note: the verb to refrain means something completely different. It means to avoid doing something. For example, “I was going to make a stupid joke, but I refrained.”)
2. Share a song or poem that you know that has a refrain. Use the verb to refrain in a sentence.

Allen Lovelace

What is home about?

It is about my Aunt Curley. She got the house that used to be my grandma’s house. She is the one who took care of her sister. That’s my mother.

What is home about?

It is about my cousin Adrian. He is my grandma’s nephew. He stays over here. He likes to paint. He loves to clean up. He loves to barbecue. He loves to keep busy. Adrian is the one who loves to listen to music. He loves to watch sports.

It is about another cousin named Donell. He is very quiet, and he has a job working at Amazon. He is 29 years old and loves to play video games in his spare time. He stays here for now, until he finds his own place.

It is about my Uncle Wallace. He is my mother’s brother. He is quiet. He stays to himself a lot and loves to watch western cowboy movies. He doesn’t say too much. He stays in his room.

What is home about?

It is about my mother. Her name was Susie, and she was always finding something to do. She liked to listen to the blues and watch African movies. It was my mother who brought me into the world. I am a writer. I love to write about family.

It is about how she always loved me. She got sick. It was something to do with her lungs. She was in the hospital for three weeks. When she came home, Aunt Curley took care of her. But my mother passed away. I think about her. I have a picture of her on my cell phone to remember her.

What is home about?

It is about how when I come home, I feel love towards my family. We were six people staying in the house. Now we are five. These are the people that I love the most. And they love me. It’s in my name!

AFTER YOU READ:
1. The refrain in this article is: What is home about? How does Allen answer that question?
2. What do you notice about how Allen describes his family members?
3. Write about your own family members. How would you describe them?

Allen Lovelace is a student at Literacy Chicago and Richard J. Daley College, both in Chicago, Illinois. He lives in Chicago, where he loves to learn and go out to places. Most of all, he loves to write.

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Since Mom Came

Nan Liu

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. What is a passer-by?
2. What is a shelter? How is it different from a home?
3. Read the headings. How do you predict Nan would finish this sentence: “Since Mom came…”

Nan Liu

Moving Away from Home
In 2017, I got a job in Beijing for one year. That was my first time being away from my parents. Since I was born, I had never left home to live by myself.

Feeling Like a Passer-by in a Strange City
I moved to a small apartment. It became my temporary home. I always worked very late. When I got home at night, I just went to bed and fell asleep. Did the apartment feel comfortable? Did it feel like home? I didn’t know. I didn’t have time to think about it. It was just a place for me to rest and arrange my luggage. Everything in this city felt strange to me. I told myself, “You are just a passer-by.”

Time went by fast. I spent the summer and fall in that small shelter. The first snowflakes were starting to fall. My birthday was coming soon. My mother came to celebrate my birthday. She planned to stay with me for several days. After my mom came, everything started to change.

Then Mom Came
One day, I came home from work, late as usual. When I opened the door, I smelled the sweet aroma of steamed red dates. The room was warm and enveloped in sweet steam. The kettle was gently bubbling. Clean clothes were neatly hung beside the window and gave off a light fragrance. “Oh, it’s home,” I said to myself, “warm, calm, and completely relaxed.”

After that, my little temporary residence became more like a real home. I started to leave work in time to have dinner with my mom. We spent time making my home nice and neat. Even the city changed. It no longer felt so strange to me. I grew fond of it. I decided to stay.

Then I met my husband. We lived in Beijing for almost 10 years. It is the second hometown of my life. You need family to make a place feel like home.

AFTER YOU READ:
1. What made Nan’s apartment in Beijing feel like home? Be specific and detailed.
2. Learn more about the word since. Try using it in various sentences.

Nan Liu is an ESOL student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City. She moved to New York in 2025 because of her husband’s work. Before she moved here, she was a bank officer in China. She is growing more and more fond of New York. The culture, the people, the events, even the sunset outside the window all deeply captivate her. Every day is a new day for her. She feels like her life is starting all over again.

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A Nomad Looks for Home

Gamze Bayramoglu

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. What is a nomad? Share what you know. Look it up to learn more.
2. What does the image in the above mural refer to? What is the storyline of “The Wizard of Oz”?

All my life, I never felt like I had a home. I am a nomad. I drift from place to place. I am trying to find a place to call home.

When I was a child, I lived with my mother in a small apartment. I never had my own space to be myself or discover different sides of myself.

I was a kid who was left alone a lot. Being alone in this apartment never made me feel at home. I felt that I didn’t have a home. Home made me feel lonely.

I’ve been in different countries. I’ve stayed in cold hotel rooms that just made me feel depressed and broken. I’m still trying to find what makes me feel at home. I hope I will someday.

Lately, I’ve been feeling that I don’t have to be scared of living alone. Maybe I should learn to like it. I might get used to living alone and even love it. I think everyone in life is alone in some way.

AFTER YOU READ:
1. What is the author searching for?
2. Gamze says she is still “trying to find a place to call home.” According to the text, why is it hard for her to find what she is looking for?
3. Have you led a nomadic life? If so, describe it.

Gamze Bayramoglu was an ESOL student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City.

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ICE Makes Us Feel Less Safe

Frida Victoria Quintana

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. What is your experience with ICE in your community?
2. Discuss the term racial profiling.

ICE Raids Target Our Community
What really makes a place a home is not how it looks, but the presence of the people we love and the peace we feel when we are with them. Although I feel peace and security when I am with my family, there is something that puts it at risk: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

When we are at home, we want to feel protected, but living near the border has made us feel less secure. We are a Hispanic family, and ICE raids target Hispanic people. This creates uncertainty for families in our community. There is a lot of economic growth where I live. There is a lot of construction and many types of service work. Many of the people who have these jobs are part of the Hispanic community. They live every day with a fear of ICE.

They Use Racial Profiling
Our community does not feel safe, not only for the people who work here, but also for the families who live here. ICE has carried out raids in construction areas, and several immigrant workers have been detained while working. Most of these raids take place in areas where there is a higher concentration of Hispanic families. These families fit the racial profile of people that ICE often targets. Many times, they do not even consider whether their “targets” are U.S. citizens. This creates fear that we may be viewed as suspicious simply because we fit a certain racial profile or speak Spanish, which increases tension within the community.

Our Community Responds
Living in a place like this makes us more united and empathetic. Many people have the same concerns. Therefore, we stay informed about what happens in our community. We take steps to feel more secure and prepared for any situation. We want to make sure our homes are safe. One step we have taken is to follow community organizations such as the “El Paso Rapid Response Network” on Facebook and Instagram. Here people share alerts about ICE activity in different parts of the city. These pages help us stay informed and reduce panic by sharing reliable information.

AFTER YOU READ:
1. Where does Frida get a feeling of peace and security? What disrupts this feeling? Be specific.
2. What steps has Frida’s community taken to feel more safe in their homes?
2. Research ICE rapid response organizations in your community.

Frida Victoria Quintana is a student at Ysleta Community Learning Center in El Paso, Texas. She has a degree in Accounting from Mexico and is continuing her education, so she can grow professionally and help her community in the future.

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Speaking Up about My Housing

Martha Salas

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. What does it mean to speak up?
2. Have you ever had to speak up about your housing? What happened?

Martha Salas

Rats, Mice, and Trash
I moved to this apartment building in 2012. Over the years, I have seen many things happen in our building, and they are not pleasant and that is NOT acceptable. There were rats and mice, trash on the floor for many days, extremely dirty carpets, and walls that needed painting.

In our building, when we need something repaired, we call the landlord. However, he usually does not answer the phone. If we leave a message, he does not usually call back. If the landlord decides to fix something for us, he usually takes three to six months. Many tenants fix things by themselves.

I Reached Out for Help
One day, I got tired because these things happened very often to us. I decided to ask for help. I went to the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC). The LEDC helps the neighborhood in many ways. In my case, they helped me bring inspectors from the DC government to see our building. I also contacted the representative from our Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Patience Singleton. These authorities took action in our building. They made sure that the landlord made big changes at our building.

The landlord had never listened to us until now. Even though I am very busy at school, I will continue to speak up about my building because there are other issues to resolve.

Sometimes, You Have to Speak Up to Keep Your Home Safe
1. What was the problem Martha faced, and what did she do about it?
2. Do some research online and see if you might be able to find:
a) a community organization that could help with a housing problem, and/or
b) a local government official. (You may have a city councilor or neighborhood advisor like Martha has.)
3. If you have a problem with your housing, write an email to the organization and/or government official. Or call them or visit them. Report back what happens.
4. Compare this article with the one on p.11. How do you community organizations play a role in making home feel safe?

Martha Salas is from Lima, Peru. She is a student at the Carlos Rosario Public Charter School in Washington, DC, where she is learning English so she can help communities speak up. This piece was originally published in Issue #50 of The Change Agent.

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