I moved around many times as a child but the house I lived in through high school is the one I claim as my childhood home. It was the setting for some of my biggest milestones and memories. While some feel like they say goodbye when they leave for college, I knew that my house would still be home as I would be there for vacations and summers. The real time to say goodbye to your childhood home is when you are moving out for good, or in my case as my parents are moving.

Since the process of finding a new house started and preparing to leave began, I didn’t feel many emotions. Why should I care if I will only be home on breaks? However, the closer it has gotten to us actually saying farewell to our home, I realized that my lack of emotions were mostly denial. I didn’t think the day would come when I would have to pack away my childhood room or put a close to so many memories. Now that this time has come, I realize that I have a bond to the house where I grew up and that parting isn’t easy.

Since leaving for college, my room at home has become a sort of shrine to my past life and accomplishments. My high school awards are displayed proudly along with old pictures of graduation, prom and friends. This seems totally justifiable seeing as I only live there portions of the year. Well, it seems strange for a 20-something women to pack all of this up and then display it again in a new room. No, moving means that most of my memorabilia will end up in storage. This is very hard for someone as sentimental as me to come to terms with. I can look through old photos and reminisce for hours. Packing in itself is hard, but it’s harder to think that some of those things will not be coming out of boxes again.

However, it isn’t the material memories of my childhood home I will miss the most. It is the significant and even the most random events that made my house a home. I am leaving the house where my best friends and I had countless sleepovers, laughing and staying up all night. This is where my mom showed me how to cook and where we made my favorite meals together. It is the mailbox I ran over at 15 during my first driving lesson. It is the memory of opening my college acceptance letter on my living room floor, while my parents watched from the couch. It is where my baby brother came home for the first time.

As I say goodbye, I want to thank my home for all these memories and so much more. As my mom has told me, there will be new stories to tell at the new house-my brother’s first day of kindergarten, my engagement and many more holiday meals. So while I will miss my childhood home, I know it is okay to say goodbye because the people who made it home aren’t going anywhere.