In July of 1986, I received those words every kid getting close to entering high school wants to hear.  “We’re moving.”  And with it, my heart dropped.

On August 24, 1986 we pulled up to our new home in Naperville, Illinois.  I had never been to Illinois before, let alone a town of 29,000 that I mispronounced immediately as “Napperville”.  I had huge concerns about our new home, maybe due in part to the fact that at age 13, I was 4’ 10” with red hair and a southern drawl.  As the moving van pulled up in front of the house, I found my mind consumed only with moving in.

As I carried boxes over my head into the house, I noticed that directly across the street was a “toy sale” being held by about 8 boys around my age.  As I looked closer, I noticed that they began making fun of the way I was carrying the boxes into the house.  Multiple times I saw some of the kids across the way making muscle man poses and laughing.  Those gestures were quickly replaced as one of the guys yelled for me to come over.  I ran inside with my last box and asked my mom if it was ok.  She was unpacking a box with my Jeff Grosso Model skateboard which she turned to me with and said yes with a smile.

I jumped on my board and cruised over.  As I rode up the driveway at 906 Canyon Run, one of the guys yelled out for me to do a trick.  As an avid skater growing up in Texas, I displayed one of the decade’s greatest tricks, the handplant.  It must have been a good one as I was welcomed immediately.  One of the guys named Brett began to rattle off everyone’s name.  “This is Pete, Dave, Jimmy, CJ, Bob, and so on.  This is Matt’s house, but he’s out getting allergy shots right now.”

 After trading the basic name, age, rank and serial number I was told that Pete and I would get along because we were both “small eighth graders”.  After hanging out for a while, Brett mentioned that everyone was sleeping over at his parent’s house a few doors down to play monopoly, drink RC, and eat pretzel rods.  This seemed odd to me, because there was a great emphasis on the pretzels and soda (pop as we call it here in Illinois).  I asked my mom and the rest is history.

I stayed the first night at Brett’s house.  I can remember it like it was yesterday.  The kid who was getting allergy shots named Matt, was the best man in my wedding and I was his.  Twenty three short years have passed since that day,and I can’t think of a better situation to move into.  Maybe I was lucky and I’m sure there are stories that could take a different path, but my moving to Naperville has molded me into the person I am today. 

This story sinks in more as I sit here and type.  At this very moment, I am now sitting in an office in Naperville poised to help others  find a home in this wonderful town.  Sure, I can rattle off things that bothered me growing up, but if I go back to the first day I arrived, I couldn’t imagine a more picture perfect experience.