Home is my safety net

Its my mother’s cold hands on my feverish head in the dark hours 

It’s the smell of hairspray and her steady hands putting red lipstick on me before my dance recital

Its picking up pretty seashells in the sand together to take back to the hotel

Its her zipping up my sparkly prom dress and making last minute adjustments 

It’s decorating the house for Christmas and watching Hallmark movies while waiting for dad to come home from deer hunting

Its the ride into town in my dads old white truck with red bug juice in the cup holder and a pack of sour patch kids beside me

Its him hitting softballs at me when it’s almost too dark to see outside to make me better

It’s the smile on his face and the pride he has after telling him I made a good grade on a test

Its us chasing crabs on a sandy Florida beach with flashlights and seashell nets 

Its writing hundreds of letters to a boy in a green uniform 

It’s watching the sunset over the hills as his hand fits perfectly in mine on a fall day 

It’s the taste of Juneberry redbull and the happiness of being in his passenger seat of his pontiac going on an evening ride

It’s the warmth under blankets in the trunk of my car watching a movie at the drive in with the love of my life, in another car sits friends who showed me the meaning of friendship

It’s the smell of chocolate cookies cooking in my grandma’s kitchen 

It’s the weight I feel of my pets Tinker and Kitty snuggled on my lap while watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix 

It’s the cheering of the crowd in sequence with my team standing on the sidelines of a Friday night Potosi football game 

It’s the smell of wood burning in the firepit at the lake and the night sky lit by stars 

Its waking up on Christmas morning more excited about reactions then gifts 

It’s the feeling of pumpkin guts and the intense focus of making the best jack o’lantern 

Its being surrounded by the people I love 

It’s the feeling of leaving my childhood behind 

It’s the fear of the future I thought I had planned 

It’s the fear of changing my reality 

Home was my safety net 

Home is now realizing its part of growing up 

Home is realizing change is not a bad thing

Home is realizing there are still many more memories to come