I remember the excitement that ran through me as we hauled box after box to the moving truck. I moved with excitement to the garage and back again and again with objects that held meaning, objects that probably weighed a ton but felt as light as feathers, for excitement can alter our perception of reality. My family and I were finally moving, a house full of memories embedded in the walls, our laughter in the air vents and the echo of laughter within the play room. Three full and  hearty years of family, three years of sound sleeping, and three years of a satisfactory childhood.
The Ganzer family required a bigger home, but first we had to sell our current house. Since my mother was very picky with choosing houses, when it came time to make a decision, we ended up buying a designated lot of land to build our house to our liking. This meant that we were not ready to move in just yet, as we had to wait for the construction company to build our house. My father feared that it would take a while to sell our old house, so we put it on the market and to our surprise, it sold quite quick. This brought about a predicament, as we still had six months to wait until our house was scheduled to finish. We had nowhere to go, our house was still being constructed. Luckily we still had two weeks to find a place to stay.
One afternoon Mom came home and told us about a new apartment complex that had just opened up. They were also offering six month periods of rent. My father jumped at the deal as soon as we told him and before we knew it we were at the rent office at the new complex. This is where we begin the first phase of the moving process. We gathered our belongings in a long process of organizing and categorizing and rented a big truck to move them. After arriving to the apartment we quickly realize that the space provided in the living space would not be enough to fit our things, as a solution, we rented a storage unit and filled it with no room to spare.
The apartment wasn't too far away from my school so it wasn't too much of a problem area wise. Once we arrived I opened the door and looked around the living space, it wasn’t too shabby, the floor was made of large rectangular panels of linoleum and the walls were sturdy and hard. Other than that the apartment was rather ordinary, I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting but it was rather acceptable for a home for the next six months. There were only two bedrooms, which meant my brother and I would have to share a room for the time being.
Before we began moving anything into the living space, my mom declared that we all needed to clean the entire apartment from top to bottom thoroughly. We dusted and mopped vacuumed the floors, windows, and walls. After my mom was satisfied with our cleaning job, we began to unload the truck. Dad called over some friends and family to help with the rather large task. My brother and I, being eight and twelve years old, were not much of a help, although we tried our best in the end the adults just asked us to sit down and rest while they finished up the job.
My brother and I ended up sleeping on the couch as soon as they moved it in. I woke up in the morning and found myself in my bed in our new room. I stood up and walked into the kitchen and saw my mom unpacking spoons, knives, and forks. There were two couches cramped into the living room and a tv facing them. All of the videogames were in my room and our clothes were mixed together in the closet.  Basically all I need for everyday living in a small but cozy room.
​The apartment complex was right by a decent amount of grazing land for cattle, our little home was facing the land, this land held a hundred or so cows and bulls. It was kind of nice at first, we got to observe a cow's daily life, but after a while we could hear them stampeding furiously for no apparent reason at sunrise. The constant stomping of their hooves was our alarm clock for the time being.
My mother has a habit of opening windows whenever she can, she always says, “how do you expect me to live without oxygen?” so as soon as she got the chance, she opened a window and we were all plowed by an insanely intense rancid smell of cow manure that flooded the apartment. There was no way we could open the windows in the morning and live to tell the tale. No windows were opened after that.
The herd over all became a part of living at the apartment complex. After a certain amount of time they were taken off and away as soon as winter was over. We could only assume what happened to them. My brother and I especially missed them, as they were one of our only sources of entertainment.
Throughout the time we spent living there, we would check in on the progress of the permanent home, this especially was a memorable experience as we got to see each and every plank of wood, shingle, and sheet rock that went into building our dream family home. This only caused us to become more and more excited to move into the new house.
On more than one occasion, we had visitors of all sorts come and see us, sometimes even sleep over no matter the cramped living space. Our cousins from our moms and dads side came over and spent the day with us. They slept on the floor of the living room as the couches were already full of other people. We also had a family member from overseas come and visit us at the apartment. She slept at our house for about two months and even helped us move out when the time came.
After a relatively uneventful six months of living in what most people would call cramped quarters, it was time to move out of our apartment and into our permanent home. We got a moving truck and began packing all of our stuff. This process was faster than the first time we did it, this is because the majority of our things were still in boxes in either the storage unit or the provided garage. Once we finished packing we invited over the same group of friends and family and lifted, dragged and heaved boxes and furniture to the moving truck.
Most people are saddened to leave homes permanently and I can say that I was saddened to leave our very first house, but the apartment was only a precursor to a better home so to no surprise we were happy to leave. I never saw the apartment as where I lived, but only where I slept if that makes any sense, very little emotional attachment went to the apartment.
The new house was indescribably larger and more comfortable than the apartment. It was built right next to a forest that contained trees upon trees upon trees, with clear air coming from all sides, how about that for oxygen? The house was right on a cul de-sac that was a large and spacious expanse of concrete, a perfect place for my brother and I to play. We hauled everything from the moving truck up to the house. This  house, unlike all of our previous ones, was a two story house. This feature was probably my favorite of them all.
Being in a house significantly larger than the last made us even more appreciative of the space, I had my own room, my own sink, and an endless amount of carpet to play with my toys on. Having my own room for the very first time was just fantastic, I decorated it to my heart's desire. However, One problem that arose was that my brother was rather young, being about nine years old and afraid of the dark, hated sleeping in a room by himself. Each night he’d wait till I was asleep, and then come sleep in my room. Although he got over it eventually, it was quite a funny thing of him to do.
After settling down and putting everything in its individual place, we could now call this abode our home. With the potential to make so many more memories and events than any of our previous homes. I could imagine Halloween at the front door, Thanksgiving at the dinner table, and Christmas in the living room for years to come.
Overall this moving experience was maybe the most tiring and prolonged I have ever been through. But it wasn't all bad, it helped me realize that even though you may be able to imagine what it's like not having something that's taken for granted, it's only ever fully understood if you experience it firsthand