The House That Built Me

I was reading back on music reviews from the past year, and I noticed there were a lot of good songs I missed out on, like the hilarious “Fuck You” for Cee Lo Green and a couple of smash hits for Bruno Mars, who has just made it to one of my top artists of all time. But one of the songs that caught my attention most, even before listening to it, was titled “The House That Built Me” for country singer, Miranda Lambert…

When I watched the video, I couldn’t help but think back to our old house in Barrhaven, Ottawa. I’ve got a couple of old snapshots for us in the house, but not as many as I’d like. The time before the last time we went to Canada was in 2006, and while we were driving in Ottawa, I asked Dad to take us to our old house in the neighborhood. There was a Range Rover parked out front, and there was a sting in my heart at the sight of our old house being lived in by somebody else…

I wished more than anything that I could go up and knock at the door, for them to open and let me in. Unfortunately, all I’ve got from those times are beautiful childhood memories. I wasn’t that young when we left, as I remember the bedroom I shared with my little brother, the guestroom I turned into my bedroom when I grew a little older, the stairs, the kitchen, the dining room where I first learned to use the computer and played computer games like Monster Bash and Duke Nukem, the living room, the basement, the storeroom, the bathrooms, the pine tree in the front yard (I loved it because as the seasons changed, it stayed evergreen while our neighbors’ trees’ leaves fell during the winter), and the beautiful backyard around which we put up a fence, set up a slide and swing set, planted an apple tree, caught grasshoppers, and played ball…

I could go on and on and I'll always smile at the house I’ll always love the most, the house that built me… :-)