The word “home” can carry many different, deeply personal meanings. It may be four walls and a roof, a location, a feeling or even a person. But for many, the meaning of home evolves with the transition to college.
As summer comes to a close, Pepperdine students are saying goodbye to their hometowns and hello to their chosen homes.
These homes become places where memories are made and where students experience some of their most vulnerable and formable moments, senior Will Koning said. Pepperdine students had the unique perspective of watching the Franklin and Palisades Fires threaten these sanctuaries.
“A house is just where our things are and where we live,” sophomore Emma Hudelson said. “But I think a home is made up of the people who fill it.”
Home: The Transition
Leaving for college is a rite of passage for students. It opens a door for education, opportunity and lifelong relationships, but leaving a life of familiarity and the comfort of home can feel intimidating.
When first touching campus grounds, Hudelson said she was nervous for what lay ahead of her, yet excited for the idea of the start to a brand new chapter of life.
Growing up with two brothers and her beloved dogs, Hudelson said she grew up in a home that was built on a foundation of connection and love. The thought of leaving that environment had her feeling apprehensive.
“At first, moving to college is super nerve-racking because you’re living with girls that you’ve never met before,” Hudelson said.
Those nerves are now being experienced by first-year Carly Creps as she is leaving her life in Colorado and settling into her new home in Malibu.
“Overall, I am super excited about this next chapter,” Creps said. “But I’m nervous because I’m stepping into something completely new.”
On the other side of the spectrum, seniors at Pepperdine are preparing to spend their last years of college among the families they’ve created while at school, Koning said.
Koning is now entering his final year at Pepperdine, where he said he is focused on staying present and enjoying the relationships he has built these few years of college.
“When you go to college, everyone is kind of in the same position as you are,” Koning said. “So you don’t really have anyone else to lean on except for each other and that does create a sense of home and a new life.”
Koning said there’s a feeling of having two homes when at college, and Hudelson recalled the first time the concept felt real for her.
“I remember the first time I told my parents that I was going home—like as-in Pepperdine, and just feeling weird about saying it,” Hudelson said.
The People and Places That Make Us
As a family lives in a home together, the dorms and apartments become home with the families students create.
“As the year progressed, it became easier to call Pepperdine home,” Hudelson said “Not because of the place, but because of the people I lived with.”
As we grow older and our lives are constantly changing, our sense of home is more complex that just a place, according to Medium. We start associating people, songs, photographs or even scents with the feeling we get by being home.
Koning said he knew this feeling well. Even just walking to the Communication and Business Building or feeling the sea breeze makes him feel a sense of home.
Creps said although she’s just stepping into the new discoveries of what home is, she always felt that it’s the people who make a house a home.
“I could walk into my house with a bunch of strangers and it wouldn’t feel like home,” Creps said. “It’s my closest family and friends that make me feel at home.”
Emma Hudelson and her roommate sophomore Sophie Rogers fishing in Rogers’ hometown in Alaska on July 29. The two said they enjoy traveling together and plan to study abroad in Germany this spring. Photo courtesy of Emma Hudelson
Home: The Fear of Unpredictable Change
The Franklin and Palisades fires came as an unexpected threat and tragedy to many Pepperdine students.
One of those students being Koning, whose apartment burned down during the Palisades Fire, Koning said.
“You feel safe at home, you’re vulnerable at home, you make memories in your home and to see a place like that be destroyed—it leaves a huge impact,” Koning said.
Koning said he had to relocate back to campus after losing his home. During this time, he lost that familiarity and felt out of place for a while—left to mourn the loss of his home.
“The idea of home became odd for me because when my apartment burnt down and I had to move back on campus, I felt like that sense of home was lost for a while,” Koning said.
The grounds where senior Will Koning’s apartment once stood before the Palisades Fire destroyed his home Jan. 8. Koning said his apartment was a place where he felt comfortable being himself and he felt devastated when the fire took that away. Photo courtesy of Will Koning
The fires affected the lives of Pepperdine students and Malibu residents, but it also affected the decisions of incoming first years.
Creps stood in those shoes. She said when choosing where to spend the next four years, she and her family took the fires into consideration.
“It was something super dangerous and something that’s a serious factor to consider,” Creps said.
From the inside, Hudelson said she was in the Payson Library during the shelter-in-place protocols with her roommates, nervous about what was going to happen to her new home.
Pepperdine students sheltered in Payson Library on Dec. 10 during the Franklin Fire. Although the flames were visible from the libraries windows, the building was undamaged as a result of the fire-resistant nature of the structure. Photo by Gabrielle Salgado
Hudelson said watching the flames descend down the hill threatened her feeling of home.
“It was honestly terrifying because we didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Hudelson said. “It felt as if there was a legitimate possibility that this home we’ve built could be gone.”
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Contact Haylie Ross via email: haylie.ross@pepperdine.edu
