How do I say goodbye to home? No matter where I have gone, who I have met or what I have lost. There has always been one constant in my life. One place that I always thought would be there.

I ache at the thought of driving past it someday but not being able to pull in the driveway.

I never expected this day to come, nor did I ever want it to, but the time is finally here. My little sister just graduated from high school and she is the last one to leave the nest. This house is too big for just my parents to keep up with and I'm sure they are ready for the next chapter in their lives as well, but I can't help but wish things didn't have to change and I could go back to being a kid with no fear of the future.

I'm going to miss all the memories we've made in this old, white farmhouse and I wish I could go back and relive a few. These walls watched as my mom brought me home from the hospital. They watched my room go from crib to twin, and moons and stars to Fall Out Boy posters.

They were here for my first words, my first puppy and my first heart break. No one knows me as well as this house and it will always have a place in my heart like an old friend.

This house definitely has its quirks. It's always cold in the winter and hot in the summer, no matter what we try and do to fix it, or how many logs my dad would have us bring in to stoke the fire. There's only one bathroom which was hard with five people living here at once. The floors creak and no matter how much you clean, for some reason it still looks dirty.

But what's crazy is I have accepted the flaws of this old house just as you would when you fall in love. When you love something, all the flaws just seem to fade away.

This house watched me grow up and in its own way it raised me too. It taught me a lot of things that I will carry with me forever. The most important thing I have learned is too be happy with the simple things in life. This house isn't the biggest, we don't have shiny new appliances and most people might not think too much of it, but I have found such peace here. I try to apply this in all aspects of my life.

Things don't have to be perfect or expensive for them to be everything you've ever wanted.

If there is one hope I have for this house and its next adventure in life, it is that it gets to watch another child grow up, because I can't think of anything more beautiful than being the place where a child gets to experience every step of their life and make memories that they will hold onto forever.

And I can only hope they appreciate these old walls as much as I have.