“When one door closes, another opens.”
—Alexander Graham Bell
My parents are putting our family home on the market this week and it’s been a really tough move for all of us to wrap our heads around. They’ll stay in the same town at least until my brother graduates high school but we all know it won’t be the same. Cleaning out my childhood bedroom, donating old clothes and toys, painting over the striped walls in our kitchen… Every step feels like a particularly painful part of growing up. I know it’s the right choice for our family but it’s been heart-wrenching to slowly say good-bye to the place where we grew up.
Every corner of that home is filled with countless childhood memories. My sister and I taking over the playroom with a Playmobil village that deserved a spot in their catalog. My parents surprising us with Coach on Christmas morning. Setting up obstacle courses for all our neighborhood friends. Celebrating my dad’s 40th birthday with a big tent on the front lawn. Learning my back handspring on the trampoline. Eating veggies from my mom’s garden. Hosting a French exchange student. Picking flowers from my dad’s peony bushes. Celebrating my high school graduation. Finding out I got into Bucknell. Saying good-bye to Fenway. Launching my business from the dining room table. The surprise launch party my family threw me the week before it went live. Bringing Rory home. More than a dozen Christmas mornings with my grandmother and cousins.
We had a good family cry with everyone home a couple weeks ago and it was pretty incredible to hear everyone share their favorite memories in that house. Big transitions like this one always remind me how profoundly lucky I am to have the parents I do and how proud I am to be a big sister to my siblings, all of whom are funny and smart and growing up so fast. It’s the people who make a house a home and I’m so unbelievably thankful that these are my people. Goodbye, beautiful home, and hello to our next chapter.