Creative Essay 【Runa】

Dubai

Scorching heat. This word was exceptionally well-suited to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The blazing sunshine made my heart melt and dance at the same time while the car's temperature meter went crazy. Under such a sky, was it just my eyes or did everything, people and buildings, seem to be colourful yet so unified? From the time I was 8-13, I called Dubai, my home. I now think that the place where the desert - full of nature as it was before life existed - and the urban city, where civilization has been remarkably developed, coexist, this was my locational home. People were a palette of paint each in every way, all from different countries, drawing together a beautiful collaborative work. I now know the light of the buildings reflecting the sun was the spotlight to keep me shining, while it was a lamp to guide me to a way.

Japan

When I was 14, it was the first time I saw the country of Japan and the city of Tokyo ever since I was old enough to understand my surroundings at the age of 8. It felt as if I had wandered into a wonderland, a fantasy that only gave me a strange sense of Deja Vu. The subway station route maps, which looked as if they had been dug up by a mole, were an indecipherable code, and the people walking at a brisk pace seemed to have no interest in anyone around them. The sense of alienation from my own country kept me nervous. It was to an extent that even the unpleasant sensation of my white uniform blouse sticking to me from the tepid humidity in September, became reassuring. All I saw was the noise of people walking, the sound of the train, and the black shadows of the crowds. My five senses, which had become accustomed to only the sound of jovial voices and cars, picked up everything in Tokyo as if it were a dissonance.

Maybe that's the reason why I longed for beautiful melodies and harmonies of sound. With an orchestra, the sounds compliment each other and together create an absolute comfortable harmony. I picked up the violin. I think I knew by instinct that I needed to be a part of the beauty to live in the complicated society of Japan, and as a result, I met a friend who played in harmony. We were often said to be an odd duo. She is active and I am indoor. She prefers the boyish style and I prefer the girly style. She’s been in the same school for 12 years, and I’ve been in 4 different schools. Yet, there was something deep inside that we understood about each other. We shared the same notes, it was just a matter of the treble clef or the bass clef. The comfort made us stick around each other every single free moment in a constricted school life. Soon, our relationship was the only reason we looked forward to going to school. 

We always met up in one particular classroom. On the second floor of the middle school building, right next to the staircase. It was a rare room in our school. In addition to the blackboard, there were two whiteboards on the walls, one on the right and one on the left, and a water tap in the back of the room. The desks and chairs were never neatly in place because they were lowered to the back of the classroom every time the orchestra practised. Still, the room suited well to our nature. We were a combination of things that looked like a mess to a stranger, who did not recognize the reason, and both of us could not be the “normal” classrooms, but we were special on specific occasions. We were locked in a soundproof way that we wouldn't tell anyone outside, just like in that classroom. Yet, like the three large windows there, it was airy and in harmony with school life, so much so that I could smell the scents of the change in the world outside. The harmony with my friend, superimposed by a mysterious force of attraction, was my emotional home.

I still don't know what I call my true home. I can divide the definition into the locational and emotional home, yet, I am not confident in it. This is the reason why I immerse myself in the world of literature. In the world of books, anyone's life can become mine, allowing me to live through the adventure of each and every possible life. This way I believe I would know what people call and feel it “home”. I don't know if it will take a lifetime to find it, but I would continue to search for "home" based on my memories and experiences, by living the life of someone who may not exist even today. Literature affirms the fact that there are many different ways of living, and that one's own unique home cannot be easily defined. That is why literature is - and most probably - will be the biggest fascination to the last moment of my life, because I now know, it is my new home.