“Home is different for everybody. For some people, home is the place with all of your favorite snacks. Home is the place where you know which cupboard all of the dishes are in. The place where the mattress is worn in just right, where the shower pressure is perfect, where your wall is covered in posters and pictures. Sometimes it’s a person- your mom, your grandmother, your best friend or partner or sibling. Maybe it’s a place- a house, or a room, maybe the city or the ocean. Some people have lots of homes. Some have just one. When I think of home, I think of two. I think of my mom, who works so hard for our little family, and helps me in any way she can, and how she always smells nice and comforting when I hug her. But I also think of my other home. And it hurts, because I miss it too much. My home is a place where my anxiety isn’t as painful as it usually is, where I never feel empty. It’s a place where people are accepted and loved no matter what their gender or sexual orientation is. My home is a place where it takes a team for everyone to get ready for the dances. A place where I can waltz by myself during a slow dance and be applauded for it, or lead a big group in the Macarena to every. single. song. A place where one boy can ask another out and get applause from the entire cafeteria rather than hurtful words and hateful actions directed at him. A place where I can discuss headcanons with big groups of people and fear being made fun of, where friends can make a big cuddly pile of cold teenagers and pillows and blankets and hot chocolate when we all have to run back to our dorms in the rain. A place to make really bad jokes and be stopped by total strangers to be complimented on your lipstick or eyeliner. My home is the place where my roommate tells me she loves me and holds me when I cry. My home is a place where everyone is a family and everyone is safe. Where everyone is loved and cared for. I want to go home. I want to go back to TiP. Back to the people who have become my second family, and to the three weeks I wish and wait for every single day for the rest of the year. Back to the place where I feel needed and uplifted. I want to go home.”

TIPSTERS

If a child is required to wear a shoelace do they wear it