The pandemic inspired many people to leave large, crowded cities and move into smaller towns like Leonia, where my family immigrated seven years ago. Such a massive demand on houses in open and uncrowded communities such as mine led to the sudden growth of prices to own or even rent a house. In turn, this led the owners of my house, who my family rented from the day we came here, to reason that it would be more beneficial to sell the house than continue to rent to us. Soon, my family began searching for a new house, one with a reasonable price for its age and condition. 

Our house stood at the top of an incline, with a balcony in the back, opening to a beautiful view down the green, tree-covered hill. I loved this view because it made the house seem closer to nature. Meanwhile, my siblings cared only for the minuses which the house had and thus I was forced to fight them in convincing my father to buy our house.  

This struggle over what house my family should buy lasted for several months, all the way from late spring to August. During these months I continued my attempts to persuade my family into buying our house. I managed to convince my mother on the basis that we grew too much in the house to simply leave it, and also I managed to convince my oldest brother to be neutral since he will spend most of his time somewhere else anyway. Yet the whole situation seemed to worsen for me because my family found another house, a new one, in Leonia with an equivalent price as ours. That house suited all of my family members and, unlike our house, it did not require costly repairs and renovations. 

As the time for a decision neared, my father, figuring that such a decision must be consulted on with all of the family, began talking to me. I said, “I would most definitely choose to live in this house. I already got used to this house despite all of its problems. This house has a beautiful view of the outside world, and not only do I actually feel free in this house, out of all the houses we have seen in Leonia, this is the only one with windows large enough to breathe freely and ceilings high enough to stretch without hitting my head.”

In the end, I received what I wanted, the house in which I lived for practically half my life was now ours completely, and there was nothing else that would separate me from it. 

In the end, of course, it wasn’t a fair fight. All the others were just houses. This was our home.