(Ryan is pictured here with girlfriend Maddy Welling and parents Jeff and Traci Birbeck)
Congratulations to Ryan Birbeck, our second place winner in our 6th annual What Makes a House a Home scholarship contest. Ryan wrote a great essay about his comfortable and welcoming home – one we would all love to visit!
Wonderful job Ryan!
Here’s his winning essay:
What Makes My House a Home
By Ryan Birbeck
A home can have many different meanings and interpretations from person to person, but to me not just any house can be a home. A home has to be somewhere where you are free from the coldness of the outside world, and where you can be sheltered away from the harshness of reality when needed. A home is a place where people support you without you having to ask them to. It doesn’t matter if these people are your family or friends as long as they are there for you. Home is a place where you can relax and unwind.
To me, home is a place where my dad first taught me to throw and catch a football, and where my mom doesn’t rip my head off after forgetting to clean the bathroom for a fourth time. A home is where I found the most loyal dog waiting for me to get home every day after school for 12 years. My home is where my close friends know that they do not have to knock to come in, because they are welcome day and night 24/7. In my home, we have heated ping pong matches on late summer nights followed by nostalgic bonfire talks. We play backyard baseball and games of horse on the cul-de-sac basketball hoop.
My home is where I was taught to be a man, how to treat others, how to be compassionate about life, and how to stand up for myself when needed. My home is where I often put in four hours a night on AP homework, so I can be successful and one day make myself a new home for my own family. What makes my house a home is not taking for granted all the aspects that I see some other people’s living environments are lacking such as parental figures, food on the table, endless moral support, and love. If you know for sure that the house you have is a home, never take that for granted. Every time I walk in my house there isn’t even a question about it. This is my home.
