Where is home?

Exciting news! Brandon and I will be moving all of our stuff into our apartment over the holiday! He will be living there for the first month and getting everything unpacked and settled. I joke with him that this is NOT the time to turn it into a "mancave" but we'll see how well he listens. It's really odd to completely pack up my life. I've gone away to college several times, but it was always with the expectation of coming home. For college, I'd make piles of what I wanted to take and what I kept at home because I didn't need it or didn't want it at school. Plus I came home every weekend, so all of my furniture stayed at my house.

But this time, it's not so much of a take it or leave it situation. When Brandon and I were digging through my basement where we kept all of my college furniture, it was more like take it or sell it. Now, I may be a bit of a messy person, but I'm not a packrat. But when it comes to little things like my rock collection when I was a kid (in an old 1986 Snickers metal tin!), do I take it or do I get rid of it? It's like all of these things that haven't been important to me but have always been there in the background are now pulling at my heartstrings again. What about all of my stuffed animals I've had boxed up for years?

I know Brandon has been feeling the same way, too. Cleaning out his closet, he's found a bunch of action figures and toys he played with as a kid. It's kind of like "Well, now what do I do with these...." Oh sure, some people keep them in their attic 'for our kids to play with someday' or leave them with their parents because they don't mind storing stuff. But it's the nostalgia more than anything that overwhelms me. My house is not going to be MY house anymore. It will become my parents' house.

When all you've ever know is about to change into something you've NEVER experienced, it can be quite scary. But I'm excited that we can start this new chapter and build our own home together. But it definitely makes you feel like you're leaving an old life behing for a new identity-one made together. Time to spread our wings, leap from the nest and pray for God to be the wind under our wings.