The Stages Of Moving From Your Childhood Home
Start writing a post
Entertainment

The Stages Of Moving From Your Childhood Home

What it takes to pack the boxes.

59
The Stages Of Moving From Your Childhood Home
Hire A Helper

Moving is not easy. Whether you're moving into a college dorm, moving from house to house, or helping a friend or family member move, the things of our lives get dragged along with us to make a house feel like a home.

Step one, pack the boxes.

Photo albums, soccer trophies, and painted plaster animals were piled into boxes. Notebooks, pens, and novels, shoved into backpacks for the trip. Years of living is stripped off the walls and packed away until all that remains is the dust under the bed that hasn't been swept in years. Nails stick out of the walls commemorating the decorations that used to show off photographs or artistic taste. The rooms that were once filled with life and family become full of boxes. This is practice for change.

Step two, load the truck.

The next thing is to move the boxes out of the house. Furniture gets carefully lifted through doorways and loaded onto a truck. The truck becomes a jigsaw puzzle of couches and tables and memories. Possessions travel, but what gets left behind?

Step three, drive.

Whether the new place is far away or relatively close, it's likely to be a new neighborhood. New houses, stores, and streets make up a maze that will soon become home. The new house looks clean and different.

Step four, into the new room.

The truck door slams open and the people surround the truck with empty hands. This calls for lifting with your legs, not your back and being careful with the television. What was an empty house slowly gets filled with the memories from the old house. Friends and family come to help share in new beginnings.

Step five, unpack the boxes.

Out come the books, movies, plates, paintings, board games, dog toys, shoes, coats, magnets, brushes, pillows, CD's, and all the pieces collected over the years to commemorate a vacation or a friendship. The once-empty floors of the new place start to look like home when familiar objects line the walls.

Step six, relax.

The old house may have been the location of years of memories, but the new one holds just as much potential. It isn't really a new start--just a new location. All the things collected over a life travel to the new place to make it feel like home. It's not so much the building as the people inside of it.

In my case, this move came after my sophomore year of college. This means I could be moving into my own apartment when I graduate from college, or maybe live with my parents for a little longer while searching for a job. That kind of move will be drastically different. This one was bittersweet. I left the house I have lived in for nearly fourteen years, where I grew up and spent time with my family, to a new house that I most likely won't spend that many years in. It's beautiful, new and exciting, but also different.

In this move I realized that the places you live and the things you fill them with do have meaning. This is not to say that possessions hold a whole lot of value; but they are pieces of our lives that bring back memories. Even if I break my favorite watch or lose a letter in the event of a move, I'll have that memory of why I liked that watch and why I kept that letter. The pieces of our lives may not stay with us but they will always be with us. Thank you Cabot Street.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Student Life

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life.

57436
college students waiting in a long line in the hallway
StableDiffusion

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Keep Reading...Show less
a man and a woman sitting on the beach in front of the sunset

Whether you met your new love interest online, through mutual friends, or another way entirely, you'll definitely want to know what you're getting into. I mean, really, what's the point in entering a relationship with someone if you don't know whether or not you're compatible on a very basic level?

Consider these 21 questions to ask in the talking stage when getting to know that new guy or girl you just started talking to:

Keep Reading...Show less
Lifestyle

Challah vs. Easter Bread: A Delicious Dilemma

Is there really such a difference in Challah bread or Easter Bread?

37008
loaves of challah and easter bread stacked up aside each other, an abundance of food in baskets
StableDiffusion

Ever since I could remember, it was a treat to receive Easter Bread made by my grandmother. We would only have it once a year and the wait was excruciating. Now that my grandmother has gotten older, she has stopped baking a lot of her recipes that require a lot of hand usage--her traditional Italian baking means no machines. So for the past few years, I have missed enjoying my Easter Bread.

Keep Reading...Show less
Adulting

Unlocking Lake People's Secrets: 15 Must-Knows!

There's no other place you'd rather be in the summer.

958746
Group of joyful friends sitting in a boat
Haley Harvey

The people that spend their summers at the lake are a unique group of people.

Whether you grew up going to the lake, have only recently started going, or have only been once or twice, you know it takes a certain kind of person to be a lake person. To the long-time lake people, the lake holds a special place in your heart, no matter how dirty the water may look.

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

Top 10 Reasons My School Rocks!

Why I Chose a Small School Over a Big University.

190855
man in black long sleeve shirt and black pants walking on white concrete pathway

I was asked so many times why I wanted to go to a small school when a big university is so much better. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a big university is great but I absolutely love going to a small school. I know that I miss out on big sporting events and having people actually know where it is. I can't even count how many times I've been asked where it is and I know they won't know so I just say "somewhere in the middle of Wisconsin." But, I get to know most people at my school and I know my professors very well. Not to mention, being able to walk to the other side of campus in 5 minutes at a casual walking pace. I am so happy I made the decision to go to school where I did. I love my school and these are just a few reasons why.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments