I grew up in the house on the corner of Eighth Street and Lenox Avenue in East Meadow. It’s a decent sized house with a nice front yard and a pool in the back. When you walked in the house you might smell Italian food being cooked, hear the television, or my sister and I playing. Our kitchen was basic with white cabinets and a giant mirror up against the wall. My mom would also hang our art work on the wall. The den use to be the cozy hangout spot. It consisted of soft, comfy couches and a warm carpet beneath your feet. The basement was another fun spot. My sister and I had our toys all over the place and my dad had a small workout section, that he hardly ever used. I loved the house I grew up in and all the memories my family and I shared in the house. We were just an average family, living in a nice typical house, who did normal family things.

My sister and I would spend every minute of everyday hanging out together at the house. She is three years younger than me, so we got along really well together. Although my parents would get annoyed at the noise level, we still loved to sing and dance making parades around the house and blasting our favorite game “Just Dance.” One of our favorite things to do was play games that we made up, like “Um” and “Police.” Hide and go seek in the dark was another one of our favorites, although our parents didn’t really approve. We would even go outside in front of our house to play “Survivor,” and try to make a fire from rubbing twigs together.

One of the things my family has always loved to do together is relax at night after a long day and binge watch tv. We watched shows like America’s Got Talent, Master Chef Junior, and Survivor. But our favorite show to watch together to this day, is American Ninja Warrior. The show had inspired my little sister and dad to want to be like the athletes and play on obstacles like the show had. Even though we live in a nice neighborhood with a decent backyard, there just wasn’t enough room to build anything. So that’s when my house started to have major changes. It would still be the comfortable, nice welcoming house that it was, but now there would be obstacles.

My basement is a decent size, which was good for my dad to start building things. There used to be a bar area, but my dad and grandpa had ripped it out to make more space. The basement carpet remained the same throughout the process. My dad started ripping out some of the ceiling so it would be easier to build obstacles. My childhood basement was beginning to quickly change, however my dad and sister were super excited to have obstacles in the house. The first addition of obstacles to my house honestly wasn’t that much. There was a swinging wooden board from the ceiling, a straight line of rock climbing grips, and something similar to monkey bars. We also added a ton of blue mats to the ground incase someone was to fall. It was surprisingly really fun to play around on at first, but as time went on my family stopped using the obstacles. Therefore, my dad decided it was a good idea to build even more stuff in my basement.

As time went on, my basement wasn’t the same hide and go seek in the dark spot like it used to be. Having the obstacles definitely managed to make me more active, and anytime I had friends over it was fun to let them check it out. Throughout the years my dad had extended the ninja obstacles not only around the basement but around the whole house and outside. If you walk into my garage you’ll see a washer and a dryer, look to your left and there’s a rock climbing wall. It’s about 13 feet high, has colorful grips, and a huge landing pad. When you enter my den, there are thin pieces of wood up against the wall and you need to have good finger grip strength to be able to climb up and down. In the backyard there’s a slackline set up, which you walk across to help improve your balance.

Despite all this change happening to my house, it may not be as peaceful and cozy as it use to be but it changed my family and I’s life for the better. Anytime my little cousins come over they go ballistic running from obstacle to obstacle. I also never would have pictured myself as someone who does pull ups and chin ups in my house everyday. Thankfully, my family still manages to all get together some nights and watch out favorite shows, including American Ninja Warrior. The love my family shares flies around the house like my sister on obstacles.