Saying Goodbye, Again

(from a fellow Witt chick's blog)

Today was a sad week for me. Another one of my childhood homes is no more. It's still standing there but it is no longer open. This was Wittlingen, my dorm during high school. I've mentioned it before but I had a rather untraditional high school experience. I attended Black Forest Academy, a Christian boarding school in Germany. This building was my home during those four years. It was the best. It was a very old building. I think the oldest parts dated back to the 1800s, maybe even farther back. It was a tangled maze from all of the additions. We had special names for all of the different sections. There was the West Wing, The Tower, The Closet which later was Davy Jones' Locker. There was the senior floor the South Tower and the main floor of the building which somehow escaped a unique descriptor. It was originally a guesthouse but became a dorm for the school in 1992. Some of the best memories of my life happened in that building. It was my home.
The building, sadly, was getting too old and run down to pass health inspection. Even when I lived there, we were always concerned that it would shut down. I am really thankful that is was only just now closed. I don't think I could have handled it if it happened even just a couple of years ago. It was always comforting to know that I could go back and visit it. Seeing the Facebook statuses and pictures of the cleaning out process brought back a ton of emotions. It was like saying goodbye all over again. I am so thankful that I have so many happy memories of Wittlingen. It may no longer house students but it will always be my dorm in my heart.