As of this Friday, my childhood home of 23+ years will belong to another family. Although I haven't been living there for a few years now, I will still miss going there. It'll be hard to imagine another group of people living there. I protested when my parents tried selling the home back in elementary and middle school. And now I've had another 15 years since then to call that place my home.
The best features of that home... privacy, the nice large yard, a creek running through the front yard... will all be missed. I remember playing in the creek, wanting to make a dam and wishing one day I could create hydroelectric energy with that creek so I could power my own house. That woulda been sweet. I remember traveling through the woods that surround that house, and having a treehouse in the woods where I had a rope swing. Oh, and the countless hours of basketball I played there trying to mimic the moves of Nate McMillan and Gary Payton with other friends, and then having to fetch the ball when it fell into the creek. And even more recently, I remember Brian (my dog) having a blast as he sprinted the entire 1/2+ acre lot.
I strongly believe that the home has as much to do with the way I am today as any other factor in my life. My parents wanted to move to Clyde Hill in Bellevue before I started going to Issaquah Middle School. I would have been living in a ritzy area and going to Bellevue schools. I'm pretty sure I would be different, but not sure in which way. Maybe I would be more booksmart (Bellevue schools are rated some of the best in the country), maybe I wouldn't be as interested in the outdoors, maybe I would want to live in a larger city since the Clyde Hill area of Bellevue feels more like a city, compared to Issaquah feeling more like a suburb.
Anyway... I'm going to have a weird feeling when I have to hand my keys over.
