My family has lived in the same house for almost 19 years. This house has been a solid constant in my life and will hopefully continue to be so for a long time. When it was time for me to move out of it, it was hard for me to say “goodbye.” And so, I didn’t. I decided that I would return to this house whenever I could, to remind myself of where I came from and where I wanted to go. This hope felt like a part of me. It didn’t feel like a set of walls and some paint, it felt alive. It saw some of my happiest times and some of my bleakest times. Sometimes when I was sad, I felt as if the walls of my room were hugging me.

I am someone who decided to attend college in the same city that I grew up in. While some yearn for a change in scenery when they go to college, I desired stability. I lived with my parents for my freshman year, which is frowned upon for some reason by modern society but I needed it. This place was one of the only things that was a constant in my short life and I could not bear to leave it.

This house had seen too many things for me to just leave it. My family and I moved in when I was two years old. I lost my first tooth in this home, came home from my first day of school in this home and cried about a boy for the first time in this home. This is also the home that my father got sick in, and where I too discovered my own illness. The walls did not revolt or collapse when I hit them with my anger and the floor did not fall through when I laid on it, too sick to stand up.

I wonder what my house would say to me if it could talk. It has seen such change in my family and me. Thousands of memories fill the rooms, both happy and sad. This house protected us from the outside world of hazards and it is one of the things I have taken for granted the most. I realized that today as I was packing my bags to move out again.

Tomorrow I move out of my house. This house is my home and it is part of my identity. I will no longer return after a long day to its welcoming red door or its warmth. But I am not sad because I know it will always be here waiting to welcome me back again.