Almost 15 years ago, our goal was to find a great place to raise our children, plant our family roots. We did that on a dirt cul-de-sac lot that somehow fit a four bedroom house in Snoqualmie.
I knew the basics… more affordable home, beautiful area, good schools, better I-90 commute for my husband’s Seattle job. We took the leap. It panned out. It was home.
My children grew up riding bikes in the street with friends while neighbors stood, watched and chatted. At times, it was like we moved back the 1950’s…. safe, a little boring, good.
I never expected college to take our child so far away, but that happened. Our usually home-bodied child now calls New York City home… at least for a few years.
This is the child who loves her home, her room that is perfectly hers – filled with years of memories painstakingly preserved in shoe boxes hidden in various places, with photos and scraps of so many life events.
She’s leaving our small Valley for the big city and the truth is, there’s a good chance she might not return except to visit.
I take solace knowing that we gave her what we set out to do when she was just 4-years old. We gave her a HOME… because that is what Snoqualmie will always be to her. Home.
She will meet new people and teach them how to say the name when they ask where she’s from: Snow-Kwal-Me. They might ask, ‘Where’s that?’ and she’ll say outside of Seattle, near the mountains, a small place where not a lot happens with beautiful scenery.
I am not sure she’ll make her way back to the Valley to plant her own family roots one day… but that’s okay. For the rest of her life it WILL be her home. Where she became who she is. Where childhood was safe and happy and made her dream about the big world. The place that inspired her to write – when a teacher asked her make a spiral notebook her journal on a family trip.
Snoqualmie is her HOME. Where her family is. Where a piece of her heart will always be – even if she isn’t.
We did what we set out to do… created a HOME. Found a community to raise four kids, one that helped inspire them to reach for the stars – no matter what sky they’re in.
So for that, thanks Snoqualmie Valley…. and thank you technology for Skype, FaceTime, text, SnapChat, etc. etc.
Comments
Best wishes to your dear daughter during this leg of her journey through life – sounds as though you’ve helped prepare her well. Not all kids would strike out across the nation to begin their adult lives. Her fearlessness is likely a product of her parents love and encouragement. To NYC – Id say watch out – folks forged in the PNW may be a bit granola at times but most have traversed bear country unhindered and all know how to dance in the rain. God’s speed.