When you grow up in a football family, you come to realize very early on that you live the life of a nomad, never able to attach yourself to one place or home. My standard answer when people ask me where I'm from is "everywhere". As I was growing up, we moved 6 times from state to state and since I graduated from high school, my family has called another 4 states "home". My mother was a pro at packing, unpacking, decorating, and organizing and made every move exciting for us kids with little road trips and excursions to acquaint us with our new surroundings. While we loved everywhere we lived, we were never able to stay for more than 5 years. We didn't get attached to people or places; knowing all along that we'd be picking up and leaving soon. I always envied my friends and family members that were able to stay in the same home and keep the same friends for their entire lives. But, on the flip side, our moves made us more flexible and taught us that houses are really just bricks and mortar full of possessions and when we have to leave them, our love and family turn houses into homes somewhere else.
After 4+ years of being on the market, our house in Colorado is finally under contract. I knew it was coming eventually, and after three showings with the same family in a week, I knew the phone call from my mom today was going to deliver some bad news. As now I begin the frenzied search for a place to live by April (add that to my already heaping plate of wedding planning, foundation work, tutoring, and my job!), I can't help but look around at the space that I've called home for so long and be heartbroken that this time has come. When my dad accepted his coordinating position with the Titans for the second time and my parents moved back to Nashville, I agreed to move into their home to keep it clean and watch over it while it was on the market. I could have never predicted that, 5 years later, I'd still be sitting in the living room remembering all the memories that have filled this massive home.
Throughout the 9,000 square feet are scattered memories of parties with great friends, wedding and baby showers thrown, a German Oktoberfest to celebrate my dad's birthday, fireworks in the driveway, Poms Christmas taco bars, and Brian's graduation party that lasted into the early morning hours. There's the time I sat at the kitchen table the day before Thanksgiving, surrounded by love with tears streaming down my face, unable to believe the news that had just been delivered to me. There are the s'mores cooked in the fire pit, days laying out by and cooling off in the water feature, football Sundays spent being lazy on the couch in the basement, Christmas cookies baking, and nights spent grilling out, listening to music, and dancing around the kitchen island. There are visits to the house as it was being built, memories of my parents choosing the perfect granite, light fixtures, and wood to finish off their dream house. There are family snow shoveling days, visits from out-of-town friends and the last conversation I ever had with my dad while sitting on the porch overlooking the mountains. There's the laughter and the tears and the memories that will never go away. I will carry them with me for the rest of my life, regardless of where I may hang my hat.
Now, I embark on a new journey...one that will allow Tim and I to make memories of our own in a new house that belongs to both of us. There will be our new family, our new laughter and our new tears to fill the space inside the brick and mortar that we choose together. It's exciting to write this new chapter in my life with him by my side. But, if it's true that home is where your heart is, then I guess a little part of me will always consider 1072 E. Michener Way a little more than the stone, concrete, and possessions that fill it- it will always be home.