Childhood Theories

When I was growing up - I would often dream that my family was moving. I never knew exactly where we were moving to in my dream, and I never actually saw a house - but the theme was always the same - and I was never happy about it.

I lived in my childhood home from the time I was 4 until I went away to college. I never once heard my parents discuss moving, leaving the neighborhood, or in fact, anything to do with relocation. But still I would dream this every month or so. Probably until I went away to school.

Here it is - some 25 years after I've graduated from high school - and I have lived in 20 different homes. I married a Marine and we move about every two years.

I think in the big cosmos of things - somewhere deep in my soul - I knew I would always be moving and relocating. I've given my children the exact opposite childhood I had. I attended parochial schools for 12 years - mostly with the same group of kids. You knew moms, dads, siblings, cousins, cars and even what pets they had. My eldest son will graduate from his 3rd high school.

Do my children dream at night that they have had the same bedroom their entire life? Do they find respite in their sleep knowing the backyard in Louisiana is their dream sanctuary? Are their daydreams filled with the endless years of the same furniture layout?

I want to compare notes with my kids in 25 years.