Today is the day that we packed up our entire house into moving vans, pickups, and trailers, and moved into town. Today is the day that we officially said goodbye to the house that I grew up in. We said goodbye to the house that my dad built and the house that has our hand prints in the cement in three different places. Today is the day that we close the book on this chapter in our lives and open it to the next.
Why is this such a big deal that we're moving? I have three words for you. Twenty. One. Years. That’s how long we have lived in this house. That’s 21 years worth of memories. 21 years worth of laughs, fights, and tears. It's 21 years worth of animals that we raised, gardens that we grew, and it's the house that I come home from college to.
My parents moved into town and even though we only moved an hour away, it feels like it's 3 states away. I don't know any of the roads around me and the neighbors are all so close.
Today we call a new house in the middle of a subdivision "home". And while this new house is similar to our old one and certain things feel familiar, when you look out the window, it all seems foreign. There are so many houses and cars along the street. There are couples walking their dog and children riding their bicycles in front of the house. The scenery and the environment around us is what makes it so different. Now it only takes 3 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store instead of 20. There are sidewalks all around us and everyone has fenced yards.
I keep telling myself that it’s just a house, hoping that it will make the move a little easier. And I honestly don’t know why I start to cry every time I think about it. But it feels like so much more than just a house. It’s the house that built me, that watched me grow from a girl into a woman and it’s the house that holds every memory from my entire childhood.
I know that as we move away, we’re just getting a new skeleton of a home. The feeling, the heart and the memories - they all come with us.
It’s the strangest and hardest feeling in the world to walk away and say goodbye to the home that you never even imagined that you would have to say goodbye too.
So as we pack up the last of the boxes, I look around my empty house one last time and say goodbye to this wonderful chapter in my life.
Miranda Lambert's 'The House That Built Me' song really speaks to me “If I could just come in I swear I'll leave. Won't take nothing but a memory from the house that built me.”
