Bella Stewart (20) is a university student at the University of Aberdeen, but she has lived in Fife, Scotland, for the last few years, having travelled abroad for most of her life. In this piece, Bella reflects on how a strong community spirit can serve as the foundation for a sense of home. As part of the ‘My Pad’ series, Louis Brown asked her about what home means to her, how a move to University can impact someone’s sense of belonging in their childhood home and makes it hard to return.
Where do you live?
Strathkinness, but go to uni in Aberdeen.
How long have you lived here?
I moved here when I was 16, so I have been here nearly four years.
Describe this place in three words.
Safe, charming and freezing.
What is your favourite room in the house and why?
The kitchen – we’ve just recently got it done up, and it almost looks like it’s not even a part of the house for how modern and good-looking it is.
What do you love most about living in this house?
It was the first place my family and I settled down in after moving abroad for years, so it’s the only house l’d ever consider a home.
What’s your favourite memory of your house
Whenever my sisters and I sit by the piano and do music. Or maybe the first week we got here and my mum and I made a makeshift sofa out of random materials we found.
What do you think about your home location
Strathkinness is the sort of place we’ve always wanted to end up in. So small that everyone knows each other, but also it’s Scotland, so people stay fairly out of the way of each other. Fife is beautiful and I’m lucky to live 10 minutes from the sea and also among lots of farms, so a beautiful landscape outside my window.
Is there a good community spirit where you live
Yes – I love my neighbours. We have a community garden and have community braiis there. We have a village hall where my family and I organised a fundraiser for Ukraine and so many people turned up.
What’s your least favourite part of your home
The fact that every time I come home from uni, it feels less and less like my home and more like somewhere I’m staying.