I consider myself lucky to have lived in the same house throughout my childhood into my young adulthood. I have many friends who were shuffled from place to place, whether to a different house within the city, or entirely different states or countries. This wall represents a map of my family’s growth over the years, not just in height but also time. Friends would come over and want to find a place amongst the notches on the wall. Pets were forced to stand on hind legs so we could see how they measured up from puppies to dogs. In the end, this wall has become a representation of the many loved one’s I’ve had in my life that have all come into my home and literally become a part of it.

The wall permanently captures places in time that would otherwise be forgotten. It portrays a time when I wanted to be taller than my best friend and we would constantly measure each other to find who was growing at a swifter rate. It marks the height of my older sister’s friends who always seemed so tall, but later in life I surpassed in the markings on the wall.

This wall is a very little physical part of my house, but it is a big part of my family and very nostalgic to all of us. A place becomes a home when it accumulates memories that mean something to you. For me, this wall emulates a place where I grew up from an innocent child into a young woman. There is no other space in the world that represents these stages of my life and I am very happy to have it.