A Needed Farewell

I posted this today on my Myspace blog, I thought I would post it here as well and make my myself official...

Whether out of sentiment or some other reason, my mother has kept my bedroom in my old house in Sisters, Oregon EXACTLY the same since the day I walked out for college in the Fall of 2003. The pictures of all my sports teams, clubs and school dances still litter the walls. My glow-in-the-dark plastic stars still stick to the closet mirror. I still have candy in the second drawer of my desk that I used to munch on when I was doing homework. Several stuffed animals still sit on the headboard of my bed. My purple blow-up chair sits slightly inflated in the corner, and the candles that I used to burn on my dresser still have books of matches by them, ready to be lit again.

Aside from my mother mentioning that I probably need to go through the clothes that are STILL in the closet and dresser from high school, there has never been talk of turning my bedroom into a craft room, an office or removing any of the silly high school things to make it a proper guest room.

It’s so different to visit your old house when you’re in college than when you’re 25 and have been in the work force for three years. College is still like a home-away-from-home. Dorms and apartments only allow for so much stuff, and I always returned home for long periods for Christmas and the summer. My friends from high school were all on the same schedule too, then. Now that most of my friends are gone and I have a life in Chicago with my own home, job, bills, etc, I ultimately feel like a visitor.

But when I walk into my old room and am immediately transported back in time 7 (SEVEN!) years, I know that this house will always be safe, familiar and a place I will always belong. Maybe Mom knows how I feel, even though the sentiment has never been spoken.

I have no doubt that Mom and Dad will eventually move out of that house, and my room will have to come apart. But I’m okay with that. My room represents so much of who I was and how that has influenced who I am right now. It’s a world that slowly fades with every year as I realize how old those pictures of Prom are. Although that room will not always be mine, the memories will be.

This will be my final blog for Myspace. I hardly come on here anymore, so it seems silly to keep a barely-used blog in a place that doesn’t really fit me. Have no fear—I’ll still check comments and update pics and stuff, but I have decided to move my blog to http://lindsaykell.blogspot.com/ in hopes that I’ll actually be motivated to write more. Please feel free to check it, subscribe, etc. Thanks for reading and sharing comments here in the past years!

Love,

Lindsay