Personal Narrative: Dovetail Drive

didn’t always live on Dovetail Drive. Before that it was Matin Circle and before that it was Chesnut. Then 4th street and then Erie Street, and then before that it was Elmwood. Then Marguerite Parkway, then Moonfield Drive, and then Springwood Hall Gardens. My family has always been moving around like migratory birds, from one place to the next. The only difference is, we don’t look back to where we once were. My story began in Springwood Hall Gardens, Huddersfield, England. Weather forecast: Permanent gray overcast. Population: Zero, everyone’s inside heating up next to their radiator. A house built of bricks, with a damp asphalt driveway and a van parked in. The garden was beautiful, flowers blooming with tropical colors. That’s about all I can remember. I only have pieces of this puzzle I am yet to complete. Next! Moonfield Dr, Huntington Beach. A cross continental journey to a home that wasn’t

Another apartment, two or three stories high. The floor plan was open and snow would frost the edge of the balcony as we looked out. I remember walking outside into crisp clean cold air and throwing snow up in the air just waiting for it to sprinkle its softness on my raspberry-pink coat. I remember decorating our Christmas tree with the same size and shape multicolored ornaments and multi colored lights that I would manage to break. It is one of my fondest memories, because everything felt cozy and familiar, a true home. Not for long, however. You probably saw it coming, we moved to Jersey City, NJ. Two houses this time. The house on Erie Street, a stone’s throw away from the corner shop, was a little rectangle home on the outside, and looked like an Ikea home on the inside. I remember feeling the floor rumble as the landlord had his frequent parties with music as loud as a jet engine, and I remember feeling the floor slip from under my feet as my dad would chase me around the