This last weekend, I was presented with the opportunity to return home. My trip back to my house is just over one hour. Since it is so close, I have made this drive multiple times during my career at Wheaton College. On my way back, I realized that I was in country that was unfamiliar to me. A couple minutes later, I was back to what I remembered as the road back to campus. It was amazing to me that within a span of a couple months, I went from knowing what seemed like every street sign on the journey, to being in a location that was completely foreign to me. Then I realized what had happened in the time that I had been gone. Farmland had disappeared due to the introduction of a new subdivision in the area. A wooded lot had disappeared in
Everything for a year had been leading up to this point and here I was in the middle of the happiest place on earth in tears because my friends had abandoned me in the middle of Disney on the senior trip.
I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. (Markham 131)
It was the fall of 2010 and little did I know that my world was about to change drastically. We had moved back to Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2008 after living in Mexico, and I was starting to enjoy my life in the dairy state. My 6th Grade classes had just started at Bullen Middle School. It was right at this time when my world seemingly got flipped upside down. My parents had a family meeting and informed my siblings and me that we were moving to a small Iowa town called Orange City. I had feelings of nervousness, excitement, and sadness all mixed together.
It had been raining all of yesterday, and there was still an occasional drizzle now and then. The world looked rather two-dimensional, strange and different. During the car ride, I listened to my music the entire time, the one thing that keeps me from car sickness, and looked out the window. I had never seen anything like it before. Flat land, as far as the eye could see. No houses, fields, or anything but short grass. Combined with the flat gray quality of the sky, the view was rather surreal, a little bit like being on the moon. Sometime after 5 pm, we crossed the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, which was a special moment for me, my first time being over the state border in a little under ten years. The scenery got a little strange again, because we had just got out of the extremely urban area of Wisconsin, because that is our “down south.” But we were now in Illinois’ “up north” area, which consisted of acres of pine forests, dotted with an abundance of biker bars and boat rental
The time spent there became more about meeting family friends and going to dinners. Almost four years passed before I returned to the memory of getting lost in those woods. It was a week before the start to my junior year of high school, and I was visiting my grandparents in Virginia. One morning, after a very early breakfast and a promise to return promptly, I walked outside toward the woods. I walked aimlessly, remembering the similar trips I used to make in the forest upstate. I saw a young kid, eager to dirty his hands with exploration of the tangible world. I was older now, and my summer had been spent exploring a possible career path by interning at a financial services firm. A sudden thought crept slowly into my mind, piecing itself together before my
Occasionally, you will not see the significance of a moment until it becomes a memory. A memory that can change everything to you, from a certain place to an idea. A place can mean something to me, but it could mean something very different to others. We go to places every single day, from the grocery store down the street to the room in your school you hate to enter. We can go to a particular place a million times, but once the slightest thing changes, it can alter your perspective. All it takes is one visit for the place to have a whole new meaning. As a high school student in the Running Start Program, all my surroundings have changed and everything has taken a new meaning.
When we arrived, it was a beautiful and sunny day. We checked into our hotel, waiting to move into the house we had rented sight unseen. The first couple of days were spent driving around town getting used to our surroundings. Our first summer here was beautiful, I surprised myself when I actually started enjoying my time in this unfamiliar place. The fall and winter seemed to go on forever, and with that so did the rain. It was challenging, moving from a place where our winters consisted of warm weather and clear skies to a place where the rain seemed to never stop. I was still unemployed, I hadn’t made close friends. I felt lost, I just wanted to make this place feel like home. In the later months I received an offer to work for an apartment complex as a leasing consultant, it seemed everything was falling into
I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and it’s all I’ve ever known. When I was younger my parents took me on little short trips like, Toronto and Columbus, Ohio. I was young, so I didn’t really remember a lot that was going on or different about the two places. When I got older, I decided I wanted a change in my life but did not know what or where. In September of 2003, I was invited to my cousin’s wedding in Charlotte, North Carolina. I decided to go and when I did, I did not want to return back to Buffalo. Of course, I had to come back to Buffalo because I was only visiting. I had made up in my mind right then, Charlotte, North Carolina was the place for my children and me. I decided to move to Charlotte before Christmas of that year. My experiences were years to remember. I stayed in Charlotte for a total of seven years. During the years I had been living in Charlotte, my most memorable experiences were the weather and the commuting.
Once we decided on a day, I began to wonder what it was going to be like to go back to a place that I had not been in 7 years. As we approached the building, memories started to flash through my mind, what it was once like to not have a care in the world. From that point on, it was just thought after thought of how things used to be. How the cafeteria seemed like the biggest room ever, the playground was a place of endless amounts of fun, and getting a “pink slip” was the worst punishment in the world. Going back to a place where I spent most of my childhood caused me to reflect on how things had changed since I left there, and what type of person I had become.
We have all had an event in our lives that feels like it will define you for the rest of you life. Early July in 100 degree heat made it a marvelous day for baseball. We’ve played in this heat since 10 A.M. and just finished playing our fifth straight game vs. Rollingstone. Now we just have to win two more games against our rivals the Byron Bears, and we would get to take home that shiny, gold trophy that has called our name since the moment we arrived. My life experience playing two high pressured games shows my nervousness in the first game vs Byron, in the second game vs Byron, and in the end of the game.
Drugs! Alchohol! These two things prove to be very dangerous to the human person. My older brother was once addicted to both, but with the help from my parents, he is now back on the right track. This was only possible because my parents took huge steps in helping him get to rehab. They were heroes to me and my family because they had been so caring, loving, and forgiving to my brother. There has been so many wonderful things I have learned from them. My parents saved my brother's life and showed me what true love and hope can accomplish.
Feeling the waves crash against the edge of my little Butterfly and lapping over the sides onto me, I flew through the water. I held the ropes and rudder securely in my hands as I aimed straight for the sailboat ahead of me and, beyond the other boat, the buoy. All was going well when suddenly a wind gust came in, and I knowingly kept the sails sheeted in with the intent of getting back into the race. Despite struggling to keep control over the boat, I felt the sail tip and plummet into the water below. I fell over backwards into the refreshing water as I watched my competitors sail on. This happened again and again and I am pretty sure I set a new record for the most capsizes in a Camp Michigania teen regatta. Ever. Period.
We arrived at the FLL meet at around 7:00 AM. Filled with excitement, we quickly filed off of the bus. We got set up at the gold pit, and waited for our time to head towards the first event, the team building session. Then, it was time, and we quickly walked towards the band hall, where the event was located. As soon as we went in, two things became obvious. First, we had to build something out of marshmallows and uncooked pasta. Second, we were going to be quizzed on our team. I think we did well on both, and we walked out, confident that we did well on the first event.
Everything seems like it’s falling out of place, it’s going too fast, and my mind is out of control. I think these thoughts as I lay on my new bed, in my new room, in this new house, in this new city, wondering how I got to this place. “My life was fine,” I say to myself, “I didn’t want to go.” Thinking back I wonder how my father felt as he came home to the house in Stockton, knowing his wife and kids left to San Diego to live a new life. Every time that thought comes to my mind, it feels as if I’m carrying a ten ton boulder around my heart; weighing me down with guilt. The thought is blocked out as I close my eyes, picturing my old room; I see the light brown walls again and the vacation pictures of the Florida and camping trip stapled to them. I can see the photo of me on the ice rink with my friends and the desk that I built with my own hands. I see my bed; it still has my checkered blue and green blanket on it! Across from the room stands my bulky gray television with its back facing the black curtain covered closet. My emotions run deep, sadness rages through my body with a wave of regret. As I open my eyes I see this new place in San Diego, one large black covered bed and a small wooden nightstand that sits next to a similar closet like in my old room. When I was told we would be moving to San Diego, I was silenced from the decision.
There is a lot of things in my life that I and other people in my family were treated unfairly, as well as we were not given an opportunity that we felt that we deserved. My family and I have suffered many times in our lives such as being unemployed due to jobs being cut off or medical problem, people acting rude to us, having to have been kicked out of house we rented before, not getting paid well at work, people around the neighborhood not doing my family or myself a favor because ‘they can’t at the moment’, and more than those.