Hola
My life seems to like changing on me right now and change isn’t really something that I am good with. I like knowing that something isn’t going to change no matter how long it is around for. But of course life is not like that and I am certainly seeing that this year as thing you thought would be there suddenly aren’t.
In about a week my elementary school is coming down beside it now stands a brand new, two story structure that I guess is quite nice, but it isn’t mine. I have no connection to this school at all. As I pass by both school while walking to school each day I have seen that progress; first with the construction of the new school and now with the readying to demolish the old. I have spent 6 years of my life in that school; I have laughed, I have cried, I made many new friends, and above all I grew up. It feels like when that school comes down it is not only the building that is coming down, but my memories, my childhood, my life. What almost makes it worst is as I realized last week I realized that I am not friends with any of my elementary school friends so it is as if that last strand that help us together is being torn apart.
Also last we we bought a new couch for our basement. The old couch was here when my parents moved in 18 years ago and has served its purpose very well. We practically destroyed that old couch; it was a pirate ship, and orphanage, and a movie theatre. Because of the state of it, even Value Village refused to take it so we called the garbage men and they came to get the couch. I was getting ready for school when they arrived and with my mom we watch all bit by bit they through the couch into the the truck and it was crushed.
I didn’t anticipate these changes, but I realize that as I grow up my life is going to change a lot as this may be first summer away from home, as I get my drivers license, and I life keeps moving no matter how much I may want it to be put on hold for a while.
Talk to you later.
Andrea
Andrea, I admire how you take the time to appreciate these changes. At first, they seem insignificant, but I agree with you, it’s hard to say goodbye to things we grew up loving. Elementary schools hold so many, many memories, I can’t imagine my neighborhood with out good old Elementary school right around the corner!
I love this by the way, “…it was a pirate ship, and orphanage, and a movie theatre.”
The loss of (the physical structure of) your elementary school is one that resonates with me greatly, Andrea. While the sweep of time does lead to the decay of these buildings which – essentially – hold not much more than brick and concrete, linoleum and chalk, there is something else that they contain which is much more valuable to everyone who has ever walked a school’s halls.
As my parents still live within view of my elementary school, I have had the opportunity to become an adult and continue to ‘check in’ with my old playgrounds (even as they have evolved from wooden danger zones to recycled areas of the utmost precaution), playing fields, and glimpses of my former classrooms through the windows when I walk our dogs. I can literally not count the number of days (and nights) my friends and I – as kids, teens and now adults – wound up playing tag, capture the flag, Frisbee and others in the shadow of the place we all met (I was telling a few TALONS the other day that 90% of my lasting friendships were forged in kindergarten and grade one; the “new guy” joined us in grade eight). To think of what the tearing down of Ranch Park (which is as inevitable as anything else passing to dust in time) would mean to our collected histories is truly staggering, and though you are slightly closer to leaving your elementary school – and the friendships began there – your loss is no less significant.
But this is the nature of life, and I salute you for putting words to these events, and sharing them with us. We should all be so lucky to live lives that cause such an outpouring of nostalgia for that which we are leaving behind.
Every moment that passes is one we cannot retrieve, as much as we would like to hit pause now and then. The only loss, or tragedy, in this is living without this sense of awareness.
Thank you for such a thoughtful post, and making me appreciate the school we continue to inhabit – which I was also fortunate to experience as a student when it first opened, and contained none of the intrinsic atmosphere it possesses now – and make into a place becoming rich in memory, the essence of a shared heritage.
Mr. J
AWwwh, I totally agree with how you might be feeling. I love seeing my elementary school too and I completely lamented the new and disgustingly sterile portables they put in.
Years ago, too, we moved an old squished rose-patterned sofa after discovering that a squirrel was nesting in it. It lived out in the garage for us to crash on after rollerblading, running around like idiots and being general buffoons. Last year, my parents finally threw it out to make room to renovate our garage.
And lastly, I’m not sure you’ve seen our beloved tree house before it was torn down. The last of many forts my brothers and I made before we were deemed too big (to fit in forts, not making them). So, what I wanted to convey before I got carried away was…lots of sympathy.
~Clare
Hi Andrea,
Your post got me thinking…
http://www.iwasthinking.ca/2010/01/16/where-do-memories-reside/
Thanks for sharing your reflections!
Heidi
Andrea:
Sounds like the perfect mission trip to me. Take many photos and maybe keep an daily dairy of each day’s experiences. May be a useful part for your in-depth as well. This will be a life changing experience for everyone involved!
Mulder