A magnificent and grand house slowly came into view. It was amazing, it seemed to be four stories tall, it had paint so fresh white you could practically smell it, trees surrounded the house, and it had a perfect yard. Flowers dotted the front yard and the warm breeze made the trees sway. Two squirrels chased each other across the perfectly trimmed yard as I gazed out of the car window. It had a basketball hoop out front and I could see a huge pool with a giant diving board out back. The sun glistened and glittered off of the pool and shined right into my eyes. Is this it? Is this the new house?
“Mom, is that the house?” I questioned with a hint of excitement in my voice.
“No, it isn’t. But we’re almost there.” she replied happily.
“Oh… is that one it?”
“No.”
“How about that one?”
“No.”
“Is this it?”
“NO! I’ll tell you when we get there!” she irritatedly yelled.
“Ok, ok.” I muttered as I slumped into my seat. I didn’t even want to move anyway. I mean really, who wants to abandon all their friends and the house they grew up in, but according to my mom the new house would have a pool, a tree I could climb, and air conditioning. Those were cool I guess, but I still think it would make much more sense to wait a year until we move. I was heading into the eighth grade and my sister was heading into the fifth grade. Think about it, if we waited another year my sister would be heading into middle school and I would be heading into high school. There everybody was more or less the new kid. Here it would be just me and maybe a few other kids. The house better be good because I was the one who never wanted to move, I seemed to be the only one who was against the move. I looked out the window and saw colorful fields stretching far into the distance. I looked past my sister into the window she was sitting by and saw structures that looked like greenhouses used for farming and things like that. Wow, this place was in the middle of nowhere. Oh, no, it isn’t a farmhouse is it? “We’re here!” my mom exclaims as we pull onto this street. small little street with a dead end. We pull into the cracked driveway and… there it is.
The front yard looked ok, a tiny swing was attached to the front of a tree up front, definitely for  decoration purposes specifically. Flowers hid behind bushes that hid behind trees, casting long misshapen shadows. None of these trees seemed big or sturdy enough to climb.  Behind that was bland brick wall next to the door, I am not the biggest fan of bricks, but that’s fine I guess. I mean who cares. A bush obstructed the front door so it seemed isolated or a bit closed off. Unwelcoming. There wasn’t a closed off porch, something I know my dog would be unhappy about. As the garage door slowly crept upwards I looked inside with a critical eye. Well, there were quite a few boards that stood out among the dust and dirt. It looked a bit like an old shed or something. “This is it?” I asked with a hint of contempt creeping into my voice. The walls seemed filthy and thin. This did not seem like most garages I’d seen. I looked at some smudge on the wall and wrinkled my nose in disgust. Ew.
Then we moved outside to the backyard. A wall of humidity seemed to just slap me in the face. Days like this were so hot they made you almost wish summer would be over. The yard was still wet from the rain earlier and I surveyed the yard. There was a small bright shed in the back that looked like a mini-house, a tree with a ladder leading up, and a pool. I walked across the yard to the shed and went inside the bright red door into the dark interior. Instantly a powerful smell assaulted my nostrils. It reminded me of the smell of wood shavings, wet animal, and old attic. Unlike the bright outside the inside was dark, musty, and old. A hole was on the other side of it revealing the trees hanging over the fences. Well, this was a place I definitely do not want to visit again.  I quickly stepped out of that nasty place back into the backyard. I next decided to try and climb the tree. I put one foot on it and the ladder completely shifted. I almost fell back and looked at it with uncertainty. It wasn’t bolted down so it would move around while I was on it. That seemed dangerous Yeah, no; there’s no way I’m climbing that.
“Hey can you help us with the pool cover” my mom asked.
“Sure” I replied.
Then we began to pull off the pool cover. I saw a sliver of green. Must be the angle of the sun. We pulled it off and I was wrong. The water was a sickly shade green and at the bottom of the pool sat clumps of dirt. It didn’t even look like it was water- let alone a fun pool to swim in. Leaves dotted the bottom and surface of the pool, adding to the appearance that it was more of a rectangular pond than a pool.
“Uh, mom, it’s green.” I
‘It just doesn’t have the right chemicals in it yet,”
“It’s still green though and the bottom is dirty!” I whined.
“It just needs to be cleaned” my mom insisted calmly.
“Ok… whatever you say Mom,”
I sulked off to to the inside of the house and got my first look of the inside. When I entered the front door house I was taken aback. The first thing I saw was someone walking towards me. A mirror stood at the entrance. Wow, that’s an odd choice to put it in front of the door.  Inside the house was a small set of stairs that led into a blank and empty room I assumed would be the living room. Various animal hairs and dust dotted the floor I walked across it as my shoes clapped on the wooden floor. I walked into the kitchen next and…ow! I hit my head on an absurdly low chandelier. I looked outside through the window at the overcast day. Trees dotted the horizon and danced in the breeze, casting ominous shadows on the emerald grass. I moved on to the kitchen. I opened up a cupboard and was taken aback. A thin layer of grime covered the bottom of it. I gasped at the small shape of a c***roach trap stared up at me. What if there was roaches in the house? Goosebumps instantly rose on my arms and a sinister shiver crawled down my spine. I despised bugs with all of my being. If this place had c***roaches… I might absolutely lose it.
I hastily backed out of the kitchen and headed downstairs. I wanted to see what the basement was like. It was- certainly a basement. The big rectangular lights that remained on the ceiling flickered and blinked at me. I stared at it uncertainly. Flickering lights always got on my nerves. I turned into the room next to it and looked around. It seemed much more like a closet than a room. Hung from the ceiling was an old fashioned light bulb. The kind you always see in horror movies and you have to pull down a string to get them to work. I turned the light on and saw that in the wall lurked a giant hole that seemed to stare at me undeterred by the light. It looked a lot like a small cave in the house. I approached it cautiously and saw various ominous shapes inside the hole. That was it for me I dashed upstairs and was out of there. Next I decided to go upstairs.
I climbed the stairs and turned into my room to be. The walls were a bright and vibrant shade of green; green was not one of my favorite colors. A mirror hung right next to the door and the closet also had mirrors. The people here must've really liked mirrors. A dusty fan turned on when I switched the light switch along with the lights.  The room seemed kind of… small. My old room looked much bigger. I left the room with a look of disdain. I definitely preferred my previous house.
“We’re going to start cleaning if you want to help.” my mom yelled up the stairs.
“Okay” I hollered back.
I turned the light switch off and ran down the stairs. My mom handed me a broom as I entered the living room..
“Can you please sweep the living room?” She asked politely.
“Fine.” I muttered angrily.
I began to sweep the dust-coated living room. The dust slowly clumped together as I swept and the floor seemed to look much better. In fact it didn’t look that bad. Slowly the dust was all formed into one pile I threw away. I looked back and surveyed my work. The living room looked much better now. The dust, dirt, and hair was all gone. I checked the other rooms and they didn’t seem that bad either. The kitchen was scrubbed clean. In fact the rest of the house didn’t seem that bad. The cupboards and cabinets were clean. The water of the pool didn’t seem that bad from behind the sliding door. I started to see this place as home. I went upstairs and instead of seeing the empty room I instead saw opportunity. I would put my bed in that corner. Ooh, I could put my tv right there. I was still standing there when my mom came upstairs.
“What do you think of the house?” she inquired.
“It’s not that bad.” I admitted begrudgingly.
“Well that’s good”
“I guess it is”
I then investigated the rest of the rooms: the bathrooms, the other bedrooms, the basement. We continued to clean it up a bit and afterwards we surveyed how it looked. Wow, I thought, perhaps this move wasn’t as bad as it had seemed. Perhaps if I had kept an open-mind at the beginning and really looked at what was there I would have saved me some breath. Having an open mind can completely change your perspective and the way you perceive things around you. From then on I planned on always keeping an open-mind no matter what the subject was about.