Where my world began assignment

Where my world began

            When I was little, at the beginning of every summer vacation and sometimes at the beginning of spring break, my brother, my mother and I went to Ablon-sur-Seine, a little town on the outside of Paris where our cousins live. Once we were there, my three cousins, my brother, my mother, my aunt and I packed everything into my aunt’s car. Then we left Ablon-sur-Seine, attacking bravely the 600 kilometers that separated us from Bonnieux, our family house in the south of France. After 600 kilometers of being squashed like sardines in a can, and with our mothers swearing to god they would never again take the car on this long of a trip with this many children –as they had sworn the year before, and would probably swear the next year- we arrived in Bonnieux where our cousins from the west of France always were waiting for us with our grandparents and only once everyone else had said hello to everybody could the vacation really start.

            In order to understand why the whole family adored this house as a living god, you would need to know one or two things. First, the house itself is a gigantic, majestic house that sits in the center of the region of France where the winter never comes. And since the house had as many rooms as the Caesar Palace, that allowed us as children to play endless games of hide and seek, hiding in old cupboards or under dusty beds full of spiders, but it had its charm in its own way. Secondly, there also was a huge field with grass that yellowed a little on summers that were too hot. And after the field, there was a forest home to many wild animals, most of which were only the creations of our imagination. And thirdly, there was a sandbox, a swing and a swimming pool. And all this is as good as it gets when you are ten.

At the dinner table, when the whole family was there, which, unfortunately became rarer as time went on, there was 16 of us: two grandparents, six adults and eight grandchildren. Of course you can imagine the chaos that reigned at the table when the whole family was eating together and because of this it wasn’t rare that the adults ate after us. But nevertheless, we often ate all together and we would just sit at the table outside in the field eating, drinking, talking and laughing while enjoying the beautiful sunset of Provence over the Giant of Provence, the Mont Ventoux.

But the one thing that made this house great for me is the fact that it was never empty because we always went there with all the family. After a few years, my brain associated this place with the family and it was unconceivable for me to go there without them. The house was the family. This holy house, because it really was sacred to most of us, the grandchildren, is where my cousins and I really bonded, and now we are all like brothers and sisters. Another great thing about this house is freedom. Once you were there, you were completely free to wake up at any time of the day, even when the sun rised long before you, and then you could do whatever you wanted during the day. We explored the region a little more every time we went, expanding our territory. We went in the neighbor’s cherrytree plantation and sat in the trees, amongst the branches and the fruits, eating cherries until our stomachs reminded us of their presence, bringing us back to reality with a stomach ache. And when the night was warm, we slept in the dark field along with nature’s scary appearance when you can no longer see it, but only hear its thousands of noises: owls hooting, rivers streaming, branches cracking and many more. But for some unknown reason, maybe Murphy’s law, the rain would always come out on the nights we were sleeping outside. The parents, who were only too happy to have peace for a while, would let us leave the property and explore the countryside as long as we were back for lunch and dinner, which really were the only obligations we ever had in this wonderful house.

As time went on, I realized that not everyone was as lucky as me, not everyone had a perfect family house, not everyone had a family to share their vacation with, and far from everyone had both which made me see this house as a blessing, and I think that my cousins feel the same way about it for we truly cherish that house and we all fear the day when we will have to sell it. That fear comes from the fact that of course, nothing is eternal and we know very well that as we grow older, we won’t come as often and once our grandparents die, we will most likely sell the house. But for now, we try to enjoy it as much as possible and especially me, because to me this house is like a book which contains my best childhood memories, it is a synonym for freedom and joy, and also, it is where my world began.