Meet Virginia

In less than 48 hours, I will be returning back to the house I grew up in for quite possibly the last time. It will be quite strange to leave the only house that I truly remember. All of the memories that I have would the least thing I carry out of the house.

It has been an amazing relationship between that house and I. The both look completely than the first time we met. It was a brick front with compressed board side and back with a sloping back yard into a small creek. There were no trees in front. The kitchen was cramped and it also had a dining room and living room combination that lead into the foyer and den. It only had 3 small bedrooms and 1 bathroom to share. The hall ended at my bedroom door and my parents door was directly in front of mine.

I was a 4 year-old kid that loved to entertain and perform for anyone that would be willing to watch. I learned to ride a two-wheel bike in front and played basketball on the goal at the edge of the driveway. I met the school bus for the first time at the edge of the driveway.

The house grew into a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home with an extended kitchen, an office transformed from a living room, and a greenhouse window as I grew into a kid who broke the same window in the front with a baseball. Trees were planted in the front yard and would do my homework in my bedroom after school.

As time passed, the house started showing its age in different ways. The linoleum and carpet were upgraded and the trees in front were removed as I left to enlist in the Air Force. We hardly recognize each other anymore. The faux wood walls are now being replaced for sheet rock walls as I have replaced my earring for a salt and pepper goatee.

We often cross paths over the years, reminiscing on the good times we shared. This time, we have a lot of catching up to do. I will miss the old girl. It was the first house that Gabriel ever stayed in when we came to Virginia. The street in front of the house was both my field of dreams for baseball and the gridiron of our touch football games. The memories will always be fond but when the time comes to cross over the threshold for the last time, It will be like losing a member of the family.

I can't wait to see the old girl and will thankfully have my wish request to pay my respects...

See many of you soon!

m