Adapting to Change

A strange boy, my older brother, Lisa the dog, me as a baby with mom and dad sitting on the back steps of the house I grew up in. 

Change.... I have learned to embrace it, instead of fighting or fearing it. Through my 32 years of life I have met a lot of people that freak out when it comes to a big change in their life. It's not easy to go from something comfortable to something unknown.

I always give the advice that change can be EXCITING, it will most likely be better, and in the end the choice was a good decision.

My mom has sold her house.

 I loved this house, I grew up in it and have seen it change throughout the years. I never thought we would ever sell it. I thought for a while that I would eventually end up with it, raising my kids in it.... yet, it turned out to be too expensive, too big, and needed too many repairs which we couldn't afford.

A family looked at this house, contacted a real estate agent that sold our neighbors house, and she got in touch with my mother. They wanted to look at it, even though it wasn't on the market. My mom said sure why not, and soon things took off, and now the house will belong to a beautiful young family with four children. It is for the best.

Currently, my mom is living there all by herself. The lawn needs to be mowed, hedges need to be trimmed, the basement floods every time it rains, and there are bugs called cave crickets the size of large cock roaches that terrify my mother.

This happened very fast, and I think my mom was in denial for a while... saying "I don't have to sell it, what if I just say 'no'".

Soon "no" was no longer an option. She has to be completely moved out by August 30th. Forty years of furniture and memories are sitting in this house, with no place to go except either my house or storage or the trash. It's a lot for my 74 year old mother to handle all by herself. She has trouble sleeping, and has lost a lot of weight.

The plan is for her to move into our third floor bedroom till she can find a house to rent. In the meantime she plans on going to the islands to visit her brother, and England to see her family. It gives her absolute freedom to go wherever she wants without having to worry about a house, or bills, or animals...I envy her. Talk about retirement. The sky is the limit for her now, she can do whatever she wants with a purse full of money, and not a care in the world. I just want her to be happy, and to have a really fulfilling life from now on.

The house as much as I love it was a huge burden. Houses suck to take care and cause nothing but grief and stress. Especially old, large homes located in nice neighborhoods that put pressure on you to have a brand new driveway and professionally manicured lawn.

So this is the change. I am sad, happy, excited, stressed, and anxious about the move.

In the years that I lived in that house it went through a huge amount of change. We added a back porch, a deck, a pond, put up a 50' ham radio tower, took down a 50' ham radio tower (thank god), added a garage door, painted the exterior, and painted every wall inside the house. I learned to ride my first bike in the driveway, I built the pond in the back yard when I was 13. I even took sharpie marker and drew up and down the hallway walls when I was around 4. I have participated in lots of parties, and even passed out on the front lawn. I watched a kid try to drown himself in my pond because I wouldn't be his girlfriend. Meanwhile there were other kids peeing in the same pond. There are at least 20 animals buried in the backyard, everything from a budgie to a dog.

We even have a wall that shows my nephew growing up, and right next to it is my son's measurements. If these walls could talk they would have a lot to say. My mom can tell the stories best. It has been a wonderful home to me, and my family. Yet... its time. It's time for a change, and I will always have the memories, and the stories...

Embrace Change, I know that my mom won't regret selling the house. I know she will be much happier in the following years. The house did it's job and now it will get to restart history with a new family.