Saying goodbye to your childhood home is one of the hardest things you can do. It’s impossible to understand the experience until you actually go through it.
It happens fast. All of a sudden, you and your siblings are out of the house and it is too big for just your parents. Since my sisters and I are almost out of college and living on our own, the house was too big, too quiet for my parents. Everything happened, for me, especially quickly. The house I lived in for 20 years sold in only 8 hours.
Yesterday, I went home for the last time to pack up a few things and take one last walk through all of the memories. Three girls grew up here. My sisters and I went through all the rooms in the house and talked about the amount of memories that took place in this place. We reminisced about things we haven’t talked about in years: Holidays, birthdays, dinners, and graduations – we grew up here.
Knowing I will never drive back to my home is hard to grapple with and it does not feel quite real just yet. The only thing I know is that the holidays, birthdays, dinners, and graduations, will still happen. We will still make memories just in a different place. A fresh start. It is important to remember that family is still family, no matter where.
The family that bought my house has three little girls who I know will have holidays, birthdays, dinners, and graduations. They will grow up there. Everything comes full circle.