Honestly, I really had to think about a time I had to be patient. All through elementary school I never really anything I had to wait on or have patience for. Little did I know that patience was definitely gonna be tested in the years after 7th grade.
My family moved into our first house in 2009. 2 bedroom, 1 bath. That meant that my sister and I shared a room. Granted she was born in 2008 so it wasn’t an issue for a long time. Even when we started to grow up we didn’t have many issues. We had mostly the same friends, same interests, shared a closet. It was all pretty easy. In the summer of 2019, right before covid hit, my parents got a great deal on a piece of land a couple miles from my house. The timing was just right and just happened to be in a good price range so, we took it. At the time 7th grade me was not very happy about leaving my childhood home, but she did not know the waiting and work she was gonna have to put in.
At first, it was the cleaning and packing. Our house got renovations we had been talking about for years, just for somebody else to enjoy it. After all of the endless packing and deep cleaning spots we hadn’t seen in years, it was time to move. Now, since we had just bought pretty much untouched land that was an old frame lot, there wasn’t a house to move into yet… or a driveway. At first, we had a camper. Not even our own camper actually. It was my dad’s sister’s, and it was just big enough to fit my parents, sister, and I. The dog and 2 cats had to squeeze. Now this all happened around October, so my sister and I were waking up out of our bunk beds in a dark camper and getting ready for school. It wasn’t fun. We stayed in the camper for about a month before we realized we were gonna need an upgrade or all of our patience was gonna run out.
Next stop for the Smith family was a little lake house on the end of a private road. It was my Dad’s old friend and we usually ice fished in front of his house in the winter because it was mostly private. We lived in this house for about 6 months, October through March. These month were filled with moments where I definitely could’ve used more patience. My sister and I had to share a bedroom that was smaller than our old house’s. I got the queen bed and she got a twin mattress… on the floor. I honestly can’t even remember where we put all of our clothes. It was a tight space to have to share with a 7th grader and a 5th grader. Even though though I loved my lakefront view, I was definitely ready to have a house and a room to call my own.
On my dads birthday, March 27th, we decided to spend a night in the downstairs of our semi built house. My sister slept on the new pull out bed of our big new couch, and I now slept on the mattress on the floor. This was how we slept for the next couple months. This really tested my patience. I was grateful that it wasn’t for as long as my sister had it but it was still a stretch. Being so close to having my own room for the first time was so exciting but also so painful to wait for. this was probably when my patience was the thinnest.
After the couple months of sleeping on a little twin mattress, having to wear headphones 24/7 to talk to my friends or watch my shows so my whole family couldnt hear me, have my pets sleeping with me all the time because I wa son the floor, my room was finally ready. It definetly wasnt ready, but it was enough for a bedframe, a bedside table, and finally, my own closet.
Through all this waiting and moving my patience was very much tested.Through it all though I think that I learned a lot about hard work and lots and lots about patience.
“New House construction with romantic florishes and details, curved windows, dormers, eagle wind vane, North Matthews Beach, Sand Point Way Uplands, Seattle, Washington, USA” by Wonderlane is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Lake House is open” by North Cascades National Park is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.