I am right in the middle of moving, (favorite thing ever..not) and it got me thinking what it is about a certain place that makes it feel like home. Most would say that you live in just a house and the love of a family changes that, I however, disagree to a certain point.
I have moved 7 different times throughout my 21 years and there are only 2 places that I would actually call home. One being the house I mainly grew up in, I lived there from when i was 4 years old to 12 years of age. There is something about that house that has stuck with me over the years. Maybe because that is where most of my childhood memories come from.
Another house that I would come home is the second house we lived in after moving to Nampa. It was the nicest house we have owned up to that point. I lived there throughout my high school years, freshman to senior. I don't know why this house sticks out to me. Maybe because it was nice and it was new, and I didn't think that we would be moving anytime soon. Maybe it was the memories of coming home on a cold winter day after school, getting a cup of coffee and curling up by the fire with my mom and sister.
The house we are in the process of moving into now is even nicer than the house before it. We built it ourselves, got to pick and choose every little detail that went into it, so you would think that I would feel comfortable in a house we built together but I don't. The empty walls and bedrooms seem to mock me. I can't help but think that I will always be a stranger in this house. Is it because I don't have any memories in that house yet? or is it because I know that I won't have any memories to look back on growing up and say "aw that's when that changed me". This house has had no impact on the person I am, sitting here writing this, knowing that this house might not have any impact on me.
My question then goes back to my disagreement with the statement that it is the family that makes a home. Is it really the family that does, or the memories that are associated with each house, memories by yourself as well as memories with friends and family. Which house has had the most impact on you?
Darenda: I'm really interested that this new house feels so strange, particularly since you built it, which in a way kind of actualizes your dreams, doesn't it? The psychology of building a house is worthy of an essay, I think. We once built one, years ago, in New Hampshire, and I had a strange relationship with the place, partly because all I could see at times was what didn't work, what was put together shabbily, what didn't quite meet my expectations. I wonder if we don't adapt more easily to the places we don't invent?
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