Last week, I openly talked about how my family will be losing our home. It has been a difficult time for sure, and it's hard to stay positive all the time. I can't forget all the wonderful, great memories I have in this house. I imagine that one day, I'll be able to buy this house and it will be our's again. To the people that will buy it after we leave, I hope you take care of this house, and here's a little something for you.

To the future owners of my lovely home:

Please take care of it. Love the house as if it was someone. Water the grass and plant beautiful flowers and keep an amazing garden the way my father did. Paint the rooms with beautiful colors, but please don't paint over my blue room. I did it all on my own and have only had it that way for a year. Keep the big green architecture stuck on the wall in the dining room. Keep the mirror doors in my parents' bedroom. Keep my walk-in closet and love it, use it, fill it up with way more clothes than I did. Keep the two big mirrors in the bathroom because I'll admit it, that bathroom is freaking badass.

Keep the attic exactly the same, it's beautiful, there are no other words for it. Keep the basement the same, my family worked hard on putting new floors and the wall to make a separate bedroom. Keep the basketball hoop, just fix it up a bit. You might want to fix the brick fence because the top is kind of collapsing. Please don't cover up the areas where my dad fixed the cement because it has my name on it. I did that when I was younger and it means the world to me. Visit the parks nearby and if you have kids, take them to play volleyball the way my dad did with me. Buy new curtains and tablecloths the way my mom always did. Buy lots of flower bouquets to keep inside the house. My mom always loved to have flowers in the house because it looks so beautiful and smells great. You might want a pet, get a dog. It's such a great house to have pets.

I want you to know that the area the house is in is great because you're not far from downtown and there's such a rich Latino culture there. You're near great neighborhoods, but you're also surrounded near bad neighborhoods full of violence. You'll hear gunshots almost on a daily basis. Sometimes it'll be right outside of the house, and you're going to have to stay inside and not go out. Report it. Call the cops. I don't care if people in the neighborhood are afraid of doing that, even my parents were afraid, but I wasn't. So you go ahead and call the police and tell them when there are shootings or simply gangbangers hanging around and you don't like it. You'll get to know who the neighborhood gangbangers are and just say hello from time to time, be nice and respectful and they'll do the same to you. You'll always hear the police, firefighters, and ambulance pass by usually on a daily basis because of everything that goes on. If they ever stop you the way they did to my uncle, you tell them to fuck off and that you live there. That community is YOURS, not there's.They aren't anyone to "own" and claim the streets.

On the other hand, you have some great and not so great neighbors (like the guy next door, we don't like him, he's mean). Make a great friendship with Chuck. He'll be the best person to go to for gossip and if you want to hear great motivational speeches from the guy who was in the Marines. He was the best person there and he talked me out of joining the military and sticking with school, so thank you, Chuck. If you have children, make sure your kids don't go to the neighborhood school, it isn't bad, but they could be at better schools. DO NOT let your children wander around the streets because one second they're yours and the next they're with gangbangers and that NEVER has a good outcome. Keep your kids safe, don't be afraid to be strict the way my parents did because thankfully it kept me away from all the bad in that community.

I can say so much more, but I hope you love the place. When I was younger, I always imagined I would grow older here and be very happy. So, I hope you live happily here.

Sincerely,

The Girl Who's House Was Taken Away