The first house I lived in was the color of mustard, which I definetely didn\'t appreciate at the age of five. I secretly wished my parents would suddenly decide to paint it a more \"normal\" color like the other houses on the street. But the house remained yellow and I never voiced my disgust for it because, after all, it was just paint. Besides, they were too busy tending to the garden or orchard or grapevines or cornstalks that consumed the backyard to worry about my trivial complaint. I was just happy there was still room for my swing set. \r\n\r\nWhen my family became smaller, we moved to the corner of Hayes Street. It was old and scary and there was no room for my swing set. Sometimes I even wished we still lived in the mustard house because at least I could walk into the yard and hand-pick peaches and plums off of our trees. The ones from the store just aren\'t the same. Because my mom worked with the lady that lived behind us, her daughter and I usually ended up at the same babysitter, and we quickly became best friends. That\'s why I sobbed when I found out we were moving, but not for long, because we only moved a few houses down. I guess my mom didn\'t like that house either. \r\n\r\nI loved our new house on Hayes Street. I didn\'t even mind that I had to share a room with my mom because we had a fireplace. And it was made of brick so light it was almost pink, my favorite color. We didn\'t live there too long, though, and I eventually grew accustomed to moving every couple of years. I remember the look my mother would get on her face when we would drive by a fancy house, and knew that she wanted something better for us, and she tried very hard to make that happen.\r\n\r\nOn a high-school trip, I visited New Orleans and immediately fell in love with it. I knew that I had to live here. I saved every penny for five years and did it. I found a cute little apartment by the lake, and when my mom got transferred closeby to Biloxi life was great. For a little while. I don\'t like to dwell on what happened in August 2005 because sometimes life takes a turn that you don\'t necessarily plan. My experiences growing up prepared me for this, even though I didn\'t know it at the time. Of course I have many things that I could complain about, and sometimes I felt defeated and as if everything I had ever worked for was gone. But I didn\'t really have time to pity myself, because my mom was in Biloxi, and my focus was on her well-being. In a way, I reminded myself of her during this period and began moving on and taking care of business. I didn\'t even know I had that in me. I immediately went back to work (and because of that, got promoted) and bought a house in Algiers for almost nothing because it was the perfect time. I don\'t look back, ever. There are too many people that had it much worse, and I would feel silly feeling sorry for myself. The life lesson that I learned during this time is that a house is a house is a house, but a home is where you make it. \r\n