Change is difficult. Even the smallest thing, like getting a haircut, can be hard to get used to, but it is needed in order for humans to grow. Sometimes it can feel like your heart is being torn out and ripped into pieces before being stomped on, but other times, it can feel like moving forward. This is the case of moving out of my childhood home.

As a college student, moving out is a big deal, but growing up in the same house for 17 years causes a crazy connection. That being said, it feels good to move to the home that you know your parents will spend the rest of their lives in. You get to help them set their living space and set your room that you know will always be saved for when you come home. In a way, you get to watch yourself grow up by noticing the changes between your room from when you were a kid and your room now. Desk space and floor lamps replace the toy shelves and modern comforters and throw pillows replace ruffles and frills. Your books change and your decor changes, but it is crazy to think that while everything else changes, you stay the same person.

Your home is part of who you are when you grow up. It could be where you took your first steps, where you had countless birthday parties, where you brought your first friends and hung out with the person from your first relationship. You probably spent time with your siblings and family at countless family dinners followed by game nights. Maybe this is the place where you got surprised with your first dog, buried your fish (because flushing him down the toilet was too sad), and begged your parents to buy you a cat. It is where your first bedroom is and where you marked your height on the door. The point of that rambling paragraph is that you have made the majority of your memories in that house, but memories are not something that disappear.

Your new house will not offer you replacement memories, but more to fill out the story of your life. In this new house, you could meet new neighbors who turn out to be friends for life, you will spend more time with friends that you will remember more because of the development of your brain, you will create your room based on your personality rather than your favorite color of tv show, and you will still be able to cherish the memories of your old houses. It is always difficult to leave something behind that has had such a huge impact on your life, but you will always remember the things that formed you. You left your element, middle, and high schools, you move up in clothing sizes, you are ever-changing. As you grow up, you leave things that helped you grow up, and that is just a part of life. It will will not be the end of the world, only the next step in your life.