"A PLACE THAT FEELS LIKE HOME" by students at the W.A.I.T.T. House, Roxbury

A place that feels like home to me is my grandmother's house. When I was there it was a good aroma of home made soup in the air. My grandmother would tell the best folk tales I've ever heard. Now she's in Shattuck Hospital suffering from a fatal heart disease.

On holidays and Sundays, all of my family still go to my grandma's house to visit. That's when I get a chance to see all of my family members. It's a good time for family to get together. Those are very special thoughts.

-Stephanie Daniels

W.A.I.T.T. House is the place that feels like my home because we are treated like family. I feel comfortable because we share our feelings and our points of view. It is a place most important for solidarity so that we learn from each other to reach our goals.

The other place that feels like my home is my job because we work together for the same objective, work like on a team. At my job, we work as a group to help each other. I love school W.A.I.T.T. House. It looks like my home.

-Luis D. DePina

I have good memories of playing at the park with my children. The park was located next to my friend's house. During the time we played, we enjoyed the great smell of the food. The first smell I think of was the charcoal in the barbecue and smells which came like vegetables, rice, and meat. This really made me feel hungry. But we still continued to play there for a while and looked the beautiful views of the neighborhood houses.

We heard all the kids talk, and run around playing with one another. Finally, we returned home, all happy for being out, special for taking in all the fresh air around that huge place. I will always remember the beautiful flowers we saw.

-Ana Brandao

The place I feel like is my house is my work place. This receives a lot of sunlight because it is a huge place and has so many windows.

At lunch time, I smell a lot of food like rice and meat. In the work time, I hear a lot of sounds of machines, cars and trucks. There are many different kinds of jobs and much of interest to see.

The place has a big park that the employees walk around on break time. It is a nice place to visit. This place is Polaroid in Norwood.

-Amelia de Selva

When in the living room and the way the sofa reclines I relax watching the game. The smell of sazun and macaroni and cheese being baked, and chicken frying, the grease pops continuously. The smell of laundry sop leaves a refreshing scent. My brother and sister running after my nieces, little footsteps utter through the house. The sound of video games, music playing in the background. Looking out the window and seeing people walking, sirens are always blaring. Police are clearing out the lot where cars are parked across the street.

It's a good feeling getting away from the mayhem once you enter your hallway, cut the light on, proceed to unwind. Often I have a kind of comfort when in the privacy of my home. Nowhere else could match. There's a lot of activities we could do together like playing board games or cards. At home we learn from each other. My sister lives down the stairs from me so we're all tight with each other. Being in a family environment gives me the feeling of security. So there's no better feeling then that.

-Donald Smart

The place I'm describing has a bed, TV, cable, radio, games and clothes in it. I can eat what ever I feel like eating at any point of the time. This place has a shower, so that I can clean myself at any time of the day. The phone is on so that I can talk to people who are trying to get in contact with who ever lives in this house. This place really feels like home to me. And you know what? This place is my home.

-Eric Johnson

A place that makes me feel at home would be like a very quiet neighborhood in the middle of the woods where I don't know anybody, but where everybody living there is very nice and helpful. A place where I could sit in my yard and fall asleep without anybody trying to kill or hurt me.

I think Puerto Rico would be a good place for me to live. The weather is nice and there is a lot of woods and animals. Out at night, looking up at the clear sky, watching the shooting stars, thinking what is the universe really like, and are we the only ones out here?

Another place that I feel would make me feel at home, or that I would like to live in is Costa Rica. The reason is because of the rain forest and the different cultures they have, not only that but the different species of animals. I would really like to find a bug or animal that I don't know and have never seen before so I could name it.

I think these are the places that I would like to live in, or that would make me feel at home.

-Josue Morales

The only place I feel at home is my mom's house. I like visiting her because it brings me a lot of memories, and also I like my mom's home cooking. I could never match the same preparation of a meal like she does.

I like visiting my mom because there have been time where we just sit down and talk about old times. Where she will tell me stories about when we were kids. We also will go through old photos. It's fun to look back in the past through pictures. The hard part is that times goes by so fast.

When it comes to dinner time, I love to smell the aroma of her cooking. I like to be in the kitchen with mom to see her prepare dinner, to smell the aroma of ingredients she uses for cooking rice, basting the chicken and cooking the beans. Oh boy does that smell good!

-Margarita Lebron

My job feels like home for me because half the day I spend there, and I want to keep every thing organized like I do at home. The people I meet there relate like a family.

The other thing I compare with home- we use the kitchen like at home, to cook, heat food and make toast. We sit at the table to eat and like family. I like to stay there to enjoy the place and to share food and affection with nice people that I miss during the weekend.

-Maria Biandao

The place that feels like home to me is my house. My house is located at Oakley Street in Dorchester, Massachusetts. It is a one family house. I like this house because it is very big and the place is very quiet. During the four years that I have been living there, I never saw any problems to make me move. Also my neighbors help me make this place look nice and beautiful.

-Jesuina Fernandes