When I was six, my family moved to a new house in the suburb, leaving the community of tiny half-dilapidated apartments in the city centre where we had lived for five years.
The house was part of a new suburban development, and as such, everything in this neighbourhood was carefully designed: the streets, the playground, the shops, everything. It was a big contrast from my old community, which was a constellation of randomness and where every component – streets, housing, shops – had developed organically over a long period of time.
My parents were very excited about our move to the new house, but as a young child, I preferred my old dusty home. It might have been dilapidated, but it had a lot of interesting details that my friends and I could explore using our imagination. I missed having that imaginary adventure.
After the initial phase of disappointment, however, I discovered a few spots inside my new house which allowed me to have imaginary adventures.
One was the intermediate landing of the stairs. Sitting there, I could imagine myself being at a clifftop, and I liked to feel that even though I was sitting by the edge of a cliff, I was safe and cozy. When I had a friend come over, I often invited them to this secret spot of mine.
“Do you want to have a picnic on a clifftop?”
I would then spread a piece of cloth on the tiny landing, bring cups and snacks and sit there with my friend. Sometimes, my mother would pass through our picnic when she needed to go upstairs.
My other favourite spot was inside a closet. There was a spacious closet inside my father’s home office, and I liked the way the place was crowded with just the right amount of storage items. Sitting there, I could imagine myself being inside a cave. I liked to think that even though the outside world was dangerous, I was safe and protected inside this tiny cave. This was another spot where I invited my friend to.
“Do you want to hide in my cave?”
We would then spend hours inside that closet, talking about different things from our daily life and occasionally listening to the adults speaking in the kitchen, which was directly below our hiding spot.
It is now funny to think that I used to invite my friends to these strange spots inside the house with so much enthusiasm. But those were certainly the places we children had great fun times.