There’s No Place Like Home…But Where is Home?

Maryam Fawzi 

Senior English Editor 

I have always struggled with the word ‘home’ because I don’t know where that is.

Is it the place where my passport was issued? Because that would be Egypt. Or, is it the place where I was born, raised and where my family currently lives? Because that would be the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

I have never fit in either country, though. I was never Egyptian enough for Egypt and I have never been Emirati enough for UAE.

“Too foreign for home, too foreign for here, never enough for both,” wrote Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo, accurately describing my life.

That may be the only realistic quote I have read about a home. I find myself constantly struggling with other definitions of home, because I was never able to create that sense of belonging for myself.

I have been to six different schools across the UAE and Egypt. My first move to Egypt when I was only eight was the biggest culture shock of my life. I did not understand what was happening and why everyone thought I did not belong in my home country.

I thought everything would go back to normal when I return to my other home. But, it did not. I struggled with belonging yet again after returning to my birthplace, where I still need to issue a visa.

Once I remained stationary enough, I started to get a glimpse of what belonging might look like when my high school friends felt like my home. Then graduation came along and my closest friends are now scattered across the globe.

High school made me start choosing my home based on the people who felt like home.

And they say “home is where the heart is,” but my heart is all around – a part with my family in the UAE, a part right here in Egypt and a part with every single friend I have made throughout the years, wherever they may be.