Moving is always troublesome, rarely exciting, and never fun, but it is especially difficult to cope with when you are moving away from the house, and usually the town, where you grew up. Childhood homes hold special memories of everything from elementary school playdates to junior year all nighters. They are a huge part of how we came to be the people we are today, and the symbols of our youth. Your childhood home is a refuge from the troubles of the real world, you know that it is a place that you can go back to and fall into the comfort of being completely at home. Leaving that home for college is hard enough, but leaving and knowing that you won't be coming back is infinitely worse. When your parents move to a new house while you are in college, or even after you graduate, there are five stages of grief to go through to properly mourn your childhood home.
1. Denial
The first time your parents tell you that they are thinking about moving, you think it is all just talk. Sure they will probably move eventually, but it is something that could possibly happen way in the future, when you have a place of your own and don't rely on them for income. It's not like it couldn't realistically happen, say, this year.
2. Anger
However, reality begins to set in when all of your stuff is either being packed into boxes or, even worse, thrown out. At this point, the only emotion you can feel is pure, blind rage, because yes, that 15-year-old soccer award for participation is deeply important to you.
3. Bargaining
Once the rage ebbs, there is, indeed, actual bargaining. At this stage of the grieving process you try to rationalize the move and milk it for all it is worth. The conversations you'll have with your parents go a little something like, "If you guys are going to move, then I want a new computer and I get to choose the paint color of my new room."
4.Depression
Despite the new perks moving might be providing to you from the Bargaining stage, you can't help but fall into a deep, pensive depression while you are walking around the empty house that no longer holds any of your belongings. You might even sit in the spot where your bed used to be and stair at the empty walls for an undetermined amount of time.
5. Acceptance
The fifth and final stage of grieving the loss of your childhood home is realizing that the new place you are living is not actually Hell on Earth. In fact, once all of your stuff has found a new home in your new room (painted to color you picked) you might start to feel like you've found a new home too.
