Burem Lane
For thirteen years the only life I knew was on 836 Burem Lane, Lindsay Ca. But that all changed on a cloudy Friday afternoon in early April when I came home from school. I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was to gather my things and pile into the next available car. Apparently my dad's brother was kicking us out of our own home. I did not think he had the right to, but I guess you do when your part owner of the house. I had heard rumors, but never believed it would be true. When my own eyes saw this to be true, I felt remorse at the sight of my dad handing my uncle the keys to the house I had lived in all my life. From that moment on our emotionally draining journey began. We lived in Strathmore for a year and eight months. From there we moved to Madera for six months. After those long two years and two months we finally found our way back home to Lindsay. Throughout those two years my dad did the best he could to provide for our family, but it was never enough. We found ourselves having to apply for food stamps, something we never imagined we would have to do. While living in Madera for those six months, I only saw my dad about ten times. He could not find a job in Madera so he had no choice but to look elsewhere and leave us there instead of moving us once again.
Living in Strathmore was perhaps worse than living in Madera because through that year and a half we were robbed four times and each time left with a little bit less. Anyone would think that that was the worse part of our situation or living off food stamps in Madera, but honestly the toughest part for me was making new friends and pretending to carry on a normal life. At those early stages of the incident I could never quite understand my uncles reasoning for taking our home. I do not think we ever did him any harm. It wasn't until those two years later that I finally understood that he did not really care to hurt his own family because his greed was bigger than his love. Before maturing I hit my low points because I felt no one quite understood what I was going through, until I realized I needed to be there for my family so we could get back to where we used to be. Eventually we did. When we moved back to Lindsay, it felt like we regained our old lives again. Maybe not as great as before but on a much better path. There are still days when I miss my old life at Burem Lane, but now I know I am building a much better one for myself today. I can only hope to one day restore those two years of grief with immense happiness.