To the place I got to call home during the most difficult times in my life, thank you.

I was ten when my parents got divorced and eleven when I moved out of my childhood home. It was hard to experience change after change, but little did I know all of these changes ended up being for the better. My mom told me we had to move and I was crushed until I heard we were going to have a pool. I thought in middle school this would make me one of the coolest girls. This made the transition a little easier until I found out we had to move to a different less exciting house.

This is the house I am saying goodbye to now. It didn't have a pool, it wasn't where I grew up, and it wouldn't make me the coolest middle schooler out there, but what it did do was make me who I am and shape how I would live my life for the next nine years. This house on Rothbury Road provided me with everything I needed. It was warm, inviting, and incredibly comforting to come home to after a long day where girls may not have been the nicest or I may not have just had the best conversation with my dad. It was the perfect distance from everything I liked to do from the mall, the movies, or the milkshake I often needed in the middle of the night.

I built a life at this house with my mom. I began a routine that would last almost ten years and to anyone that knows me that's the greatest gift I can be given. This house and neighborhood allowed me the freedom I needed all while providing a safe place for me to return home to at the end of the night. It housed me and countless friends who have come and gone. It was the place for prom and homecoming pictures and countless birthday parties and other family events I'll never forget. Moving out and packing up my life this summer has been an experience I'll always remember. As I go through all of my things from over the years I've learned to let go. The move overall isn't sad. It is exciting and new and will ultimately help give me the fresh start I've needed for so long.