Oh The Walls That Watched Me Grow

     A few days ago I heard a song that really touched my heart. The song is called "The House that Built Me", by Miranda Lambert. It speaks about a woman that goes back to her old home and watches from a distance the people that now reside in the house she grew up in. As if speaking to them, she recounts all of her memories in that house. Memories that would have no meaning to the new owners, but helped build who she became. 

     And so I couldn't help but think. We all grow up and life changes, and eventually we all leave that home that watched us grow. If walls could speak, they would tell countless stories of all of the moments in our lives. 

     If I could leave behind memories that the walls in my home watched as I grew up, I would recount the time my sister and I slept in the same room as our home was being reconstructed. The laughter we shared as we pranked each other, the secrets we whispered, and of course the arguing of having to share the same closet. 

     The times I would sing and dance after school as I tried on new outfits in my room. The sweet moments that one night I carried my newborn baby brother around the living room, as my mother made him chamomile for his upset stomach. The times I laughed until I couldn't breathe when my best friends and I joked about high school shenanigans.

     The times I wept from joy, heartbreaks, and sadness on my bedroom floor. The family parties that were held in my backyard, and the kids that ran around outside playing freeze tag. The times my mother would call us to come down at 8 in the morning to shovel 10 feet of snow, after wishing for a snow day. The times my sister and I cracked ourselves up making voice impersonations as we dried the dishes.

     The walls in my home would fill dozens of books with the memories that were created. Like in the song, those stories become like secrets engrained within the walls of the home. Time may pass, people may change, but the memory remains alive to those who remember. You would think I am moving away to another place, by the way I'm writing. But truth be told, it can said about any place you leave behind. Certain places bring back feelings of different moments in our lives. And sometimes the simple act of visiting the place, looking at a picture, hearing a song....can replay that memory as if it just happened. I'm thankful for memories, our minds were truly created so beautifully.