We moved to Winter Springs, Florida from Chicago, Illinois. Although I was too young to remember much, my parents told me I was very displeased with the move, and the only thing that gave me solace was the swimming pool waiting out back.
However, we were welcomed into a close-knit community of families who had kids my own age. As my mom went out for neighborhood Bunko nights, I ran around knocking on neighbors' doors (because I was too scared to talk on the phone) asking if the kids could play with me. The neighborhood seemed so big to me. But at four years old, I was ready to tackle it, and to embrace my new home.
At six years old, I met my childhood best friend just three doors down, and we spent nearly every day together at each others' houses. Sure, we occasionally had fights over whether we were going to play Pokemon Stadium or Barbie Pet Rescue, but despite these small quarrels, we were inseparable.
At eight years old, I had finally emerged victorious from the fight I had with my parents over getting a dog. I will never forget the day we drove our standard poodle home from Destin. Our dog Delilah was very stubborn, and oftentimes refused to go on a walk with anyone if it wasn't my mom. She was the giant, fluffy, cuddly canine that I loved to show off to all my neighbors.
At ten years old, more kids my age moved into Arrowhead, and friendly playdates turned into competitive games of manhunt. Although I wasn't very fast, and I wasn't very stealth either, I still had fun mocking terror as the other kids found my hiding spot and ran after to catch me.
At twelve years old, I cried when I heard the news that my childhood best friend was moving to Michigan. In the years to follow, I would only get to see her on New Year's Day, when she and her family would fly down to Florida for the weekend.
At fourteen years old, I got off the bus from middle school for the last time. As I walked back into my neighborhood, I had suddenly realized how much our community had changed. I looked around and noticed that there were no more basketball hoops, no more razor scooters, and no more skateboards. The only thing I saw was emptiness and quietness on the street, and "for sale" posts planted on every third house.
Through the years, I watched as my childhood friends grew up with me. Before I knew it, we were all in high school, and our lives were pulling us in all different directions. I came to realize that the things about my neighborhood that were once so exciting were things I had either outgrown, or things that simply didn't exist anymore.
By the time I finished high school, the city of Winter Springs had died down to a city of frozen yogurt joints, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. I couldn't wait to start my new adventure in Gainesville, Florida: a college town that was sure to never have a dull night.
The adjustment to college was very difficult for me at first. After all, I spent most of my life in a gated, sheltered, country club community with just over twenty houses. But after I got acquainted, I wondered how I ever got by for so long in such a small, peaceful town.
Oftentimes, I forget how much home means to me, until a month or so away from it has passed. Every time the gates pull back and I roll into the subdivision I've known for most of my life, I am flooded with nostalgia; the memories that overcome me are so clear and powerful that it's almost as if no time has passed at all.
I am so fortunate to have had a childhood so strongly associated with the friendliness of my community, even though it couldn't last forever. Even after two years of being a quasi-indepedent college student, it still feels surreal that my home is now a place I reside in for only a small fraction of the year.
People always told me to treasure your childhood, because it would be over far before you were ready for it to be. I may be grown up now, but I still hold my memories of youthful bliss close to me. My twenty-one year old self can look back and smile at the four-year-old kid with the bobbed haircut, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Christmas morning to wake my family up at 5:30am.
When you stay in one place for a long time, it becomes a part of who you are. And I do believe that wherever my life takes me, I will carry Arrowhead Court with me forever.
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