Week 6: Home-in-a-box Museum

For class, we were asked to make an ‘exhibit’ about the meaning of home to us. With that being said, I am a study abroad student who did not bring much of what home meant to me. I think that my box would be a little bit different but still had some of the same things in my box. I made with what I have and what home meant to me. My opinion of home is your center point of who you are because the things in our ‘exhibit’ defined who we are as a person. It also shows how we present ourselves to people we are meeting for the first time. In my box, I put a Minnesota (MN) Vikings shirt, a love your melon (LYM) headband, a lanyard of my university (UND), my testing kit to show I have diabetes, and a picture of my family.  

The MN Vikings shirt represents the state that I was born and live in. I absolutely love being from the Midwest because they have all four seasons. I am passionate about American Football because it was my family did a lot on Sunday afternoons. The television was on the ESPN station on Thursday and Monday nights for American Football, but we did not go all out like we do on Sundays. I have gone to a couple of Vikings game, but I have not been in the new U.S. Bank Stadium yet. However, I cannot wait for the chance when I do get to see a game there. The Vikings are of course my favorite team, but I have another favorite team as well they are the Carolina Panthers.

Love Your Melon is an organization that was founded by two college students who are actually from Minnesota and went to the University of Minnesota. The proceeds go to funding for pediatric cancer. I have six different style hats from them and I have given two hats as gifts. I have a passion for supporting a good cause.

My lanyard is where I go for university. I am in my last year of undergraduate and will be applying for a master’s in social work. The city where I go to school in North Dakota is about a five-hour car ride from my hometown in Minnesota.

The testing kit represents the fact that I have Type 1 Diabetes. I have had it for the past thirteen years of my life. I got it when I was eight years old. One of my questions I got from my feedback is “has diabetes stopped you from being able to do anything?” Honestly, diabetes has never been able to stop me if anything it has made me stronger. I have adapted a life with diabetes and I almost forget that I have diabetes. It has been a blessing and a curse in a way.

Family is my very important to me. They represent the feeling of what home to me. I have a father, mother, and two older sisters.

As far as the feedback goes, I believe that it was expected from what I put in my ‘exhibit.’ There were a couple of unexpected questions like would I play American Football professionally which I would not. I have a feeling that they did not know who’s box it was because I did not any indication that it was me. The other unexpected questions were about the color purple because I had my t-shirt, my post-its, and the box. This was a coincidence because purple is one of my favorite colors along with yellow.

In the end, the ‘exhibition’ of every student in the classroom box was viewed the same way as you would in a museum. However, we wrote feedback or a question about what an object or photograph in their box. It was interesting to see how people interpret or get creative with the directions we were given. I think that semiotics is a theory that is representing my box ‘exhibit’ because the items in my box were signs of who I was. Every student knew the meaning of the boxes, but it was how we represented home. The signs or items in my box associated with the meaning of home to me in my head. Furthermore, there can be problems with the item (signifier) and the meaning (signified) because people can interpret the ‘exhibit’ different then the author wanted. I believe that the semiotic approach was taken when I assemble my box which my classmates seem to see the signs I was showing them.