THE HOUSE WHERE I BECAME ME
A house is a box filled with stuff. A home is a box filled with family. The truth is, when my mom said I should write an essay for this Habitat contest about what a Habitat House means to me and my future, I kept putting it off. I didn't think it really meant anything to me because that happened so long ago I honestly don't remember life any other way ... well, I remember a few little details from before we lived here. Mostly I hear my mother or brothers talk about how it changed our lives, and that is just a bunch of stories to me, like reading about something in a history book. I know the details, about how we lived in such a tiny cramped apartment that was meant for a family of three, maybe four if the kids shared a room. I've heard about the substandard housing fears like sparks coming out of the outlets, or the basement flooding so much my brother Kevin actually rowed across it in a small plastic tub.
I think this house means something so different to each member of my family. For my mother the best thing about the house was freedom from worrying about if the landlord would go up in the rent, or sell the place and it would be time to move again. For my Dad, it was not only feeling of security in providing for his family, but mostly in knowing he helped build this house. I don't think he would have liked it as much if he hadn't helped to build it. My brothers liked that they knew they wouldn't have to move again.
For me, when I see this house, my home, it's more personal. This is the house where I became me. My room has seen so much joy, and so much anguish ... sometimes so much mess! The walls absorbed the laughter of my friends and me as we stayed up way too late at night on a weekend sleepover, it is where I wrote angry letters to a boy who dumped me, and it is where I have dreamed of my future, or pretend to be a rock star. It is where I listen to the music that is practically part of me, it is my place to express all my self, without the restrictions of worrying if the landlord will approve the color choice, or be mad because I put holes in the walls by using too many tacks for my many posters (including on my ceiling!)
My parents think about all the practical stuff like how many plugs there are on the walls, and the money they have saved because of insulation, sometimes they talk about all the obligations that homeowners have, with upkeep, and adding to the value of the house with all the landscaping they are doing themselves, but I'm, 14 and the truth is... I don't care about that stuff. I care that I've been here for more than half of my life, the most important half, the part where I chose to be the me that I am. This is the house where there are marks near one of the doors showing how tall I've grown this year, and all the years we've been here. This is the house where I learned to ride a bike, and rollerblade. This is the neighborhood where I got to know lots of older people, when I had my paper route for 4 years. This house will always be part of who I am.
Sometimes I feel bad for my brothers because they didn't have a great house like this to be part of their real young childhood, they had to move a lot and they didn't get that anchored feeling of a home till they were in high school. So even though I know what this essay is supposed to be about, I'm afraid I can't help you there, because thankfully, this is the only home I really know. Thanks to Habitat.
I have thought many times about the far off future, maybe 100 years from now, when some other young girl will be laying on her bed in my room (it will always be my room, because so much of me has seeped into the walls!). Will she wonder about whom else lived in that room? Maybe I will have to hide a note for her all about me, and the house, and how it came to life! This house will be around a long time; because it was well made ... anything made with so much caring will last a long time. |
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A HABITAT SUCCESS STORY
By Rich Perry, Former HfHYC Board Member
You’ve heard the beginning of the habitat for Humanity story in York County many times but have you ever heard the happy ending? Here’s our most recent success.
The story began with our first project in 1989. Like the others since, the initial elements were a family in need of quality affordable housing to serve as the Partner Family, an available lot on which to build in York County, and a “lot” of volunteers who provided their skills, sweat, money and kindness to construct the 4-bedroom home. With time, luck, and hard work, the result was a new home for our Partner Family of 6 children and their parents. Like all Habitat Partner Families, this family had to provide many hours of sweat equity to the project and they took on a 20-year interest-free mortgage to Habitat for Humanity to pay for their new home. The monthly mortgage repayment, and the others that continue to follow in subsequent projects, provide the funds for Habitat to continue its mission and extend the opportunity for home ownership to others in York County. To this Partner Family, it was a “hand up, not a hand out.”
The story doesn’t end there. For this family, it was not just a new home but a new beginning. One of the parents was an alcoholic. The experience of building a new house in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and the responsibilities that came with it empowered him. “It changed my life,” he said recently. By the time of the dedication of the completed house in 1989, he was well on his way to recovery. To this day, seventeen years later, he has not had another drink.
It wasn’t just his life that was changed. He and his wife raised six children in that home. Successful adults, they now have their own children, and over the years, the house has echoed with the laughter of twelve grandchildren. The parents also opened their home to their niece, who with their love and support, went from a failing student to a graduate who recently completed fourteen months of service to her country as a member of our armed services in Iraq.
However, it wasn’t always easy. Like all of us, they had financial pressures and health issues. For the past 20 years, the family has dealt with the progressive disability of the mother who has multiple sclerosis.
Despite their hardships, they have succeeded. The father has a mobile repair business which has grown over the years. This summer, four years early, the Partner Family paid off the balance of their mortgage in full, and now owns their home free and clear. Like so many Americans, they now savor the power of home ownership, and they remain forever thankful for the “hand up” that Habitat for Humanity York County gave them. “If I ever win the lottery, the first thing I would do is give some back to Habitat,” says our “former” family partner. |
Habitat International
