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   Elementary School
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Besides friends from my apartment complex, almost every other friend I knew lived in a house. I could tell their houses were qualitatively larger than my family's two bedroom apartment, but the difference never struck me like it did my mom. 

I noticed this affect only after my play dates where for hours after returning home my mom would do nothing but describe how great and impressive my friend's house had been to my dad. Then for days she would speak exclusively about other houses she had liked, comparing different attributes between them. She would dream of how great a life of home ownership would be. She held this idyllic picture of having an expansive yard where Noah and I would play. Large living spaces she could proudly invite guests into. In these fantasies she also dreamed of a dining room where we would eat at a western styled table where people sat in chairs rather than our plastic Korean styled table that was so low to the ground we ate our meals seated on the floor.

Even before moving to our house in Middleville years later, my parents would furnish the apartment dining room with a coveted western dining table. I remember how strange it felt sitting in a chair while eating our meals. Suddenly on top of wood.