Return To Where You Came From (Reader Response)

Home is where the heart is. Many Muslims make a spiritual journey to their homeland. Students drive all hours of the night to return home for the holidays. Families all gather at home to celebrate Christmas. There is just something about home and the place a person grows up in that keeps them coming back for more. To me home is paradise and home is heaven on earth. Returning home to find little shoes and backpacks strewn about the house, dirty dishes in the sink, and Spongebob Squarepants blaring from the living room TV are many things I look forward to after a long day at school or at work. Song was right in “Heaven.” Home is perfect and home is where everyone wants to end up.

For some reason we as Americans feel the need to find where we came from. I remember my mom doing research for hours and hours on the phone and on the internet looking for her family and where they are now. My mom worked day and night to piece together our family tree. When that family tree was finished we set out on a voyage across the state of South Dakota to experience the life that my family members from generations past experienced. We went from Hudson, South Dakota all the way over to Rapid City, South Dakota tracking down family members and relations. Not the idea of the perfect vacation for a twelve year old but looking back now I appreciate the work my mom went through to give us that vacation. I’m glad that I was given a copy of the family tree. The family tree gives me a sense of home and a sense of family.

Growing up in a small town in South Dakota I was taught that in the end, after everything is gone and all of your friends have left you, you still have family. These morals and beliefs I was given through my childhood I hold very dear to my heart. It is true. I find myself looking forward to seeing my family and looking forward to cooking dinner in the evening. I feel that without family and without home I would have nothing. In fact I know that I would have nothing.

I feel that Song truly captured this in her poem, “Heaven.” The speaker feels this yearning to go to China. China is home. China is heaven. This yearning to return home is felt by many and is not only a feeling felt by adults and scholars. Students can not wait to return home for the holidays, home is a place of relaxation, a getaway, and a place to catch up with family. Home is a very important part of everyone’s life.

Heaven is a great poem and I feel that Song wrote the truth about all people. Not just Americans and immigrants, but all people. Everyone longs to come home and to spend time with family. Home holds a special place in everyone’s heart and Song wrote about this special place that everyone holds dear and near to their hearts.