My First Time Driving Out Of The City Of Denver

I didn’t want to have to leave my friends in Nashville and be forced to make new ones in Atlanta. I didn’t want to get used to another new house or another city. I just wanted to stay in the only place I could call home. As the day of my departure approached, I thought of running away, so I wouldn’t have to move and my dad could keep his job in Atlanta. Thankfully, I never went through with it. When the day finally arrived, I was everything but ready. My mom had picked my brother up from school early to help move boxes out of the house and into our car while the movers haled broken down beds, and other pieces of furniture into their industrial moving trucks. Once everything was packed into trucks, paper work was finished and dogs were loaded in the car, we began the long 4-hour trip to Atlanta as dusk made its way to the sky. The trip itself was a calm one, we managed to avoid any major accidents on the highway, and we were traveling around 8 o’clock so the traffic had died down. As we drove I couldn’t help but think back to the friends I left and what was to come

Waving goodbye from the backseat of the car, as we pull out of my parent’s driveway. Looking out the window at the oddly, white shaped clouds. Thinking, I had never been away from my parents and my younger sister for so long, even though it was only for two weeks. I was excited and scared all at once, but I wasn’t too thrilled about the whole 29-hour drive there. Hoping that the trip would go well and nothing bad will happen to us.

The plane took off and were in the air leaving the place I had only ever known. I remember when my parents told me and my two brothers that we would be moving to the United states. At the time I didn’t know where we would end up or how we were even getting there. All I knew was I would be in a totally different landscape with a lot of ethnically different people whom I have never met or seen before.

     The day I moved away, a lot of things were going through my young mind. As I took my last look at my home, I remembered all the fun times I had with my family and friends through out my

Imagine yourself on a road trip to a place where the weather is different and the places are new to you. In a place where you only know family and no one else. A feeling like no other, that’s what I felt, knowing I was going to live in this new place.

In that summer prior to moving in the fall, I grew anxious and eager. My friends slowly began to move to their new colleges and I thought to myself “wow, this is really happening!” Unfortunately, my sister and I (we are twins) started school on the same day so our parents had to split up and take me to California and her to New York. My mom traveled with me and I remember us sitting in the airport waiting for our flight watching my last sunset, and she said “I am so happy for you. I know you will enjoy this.” I knew I would

That day at the airport, I thought about a lot of things while we wait for the plane to take off. Moving to the United States with my sister was a huge turning point for me on so many levels. It meant that I will need to learn a new language and adapt to a new culture. It meant that I will leave my aunt and uncle who have raised me for the past eleven years. It meant that I will live with my mom and see my dad and stepdad for the very first time. My emotion was mixed with excitement, fear, and hesitation.

After departing from the French Quarter, we headed north to Biloxi, Mississippi, east through Mobile, Alabama and out onto Florida’s long, desolate and boring country highway into the panhandle and past Pensacola. On the drive home, I started feeling a lot of nervous anxiety. I was suddenly

I awoke on a cool summer morning, at first I wasn't completely there but then, a chill of excitement ran down my spine as I realized my family was going camping today. I ran down stairs past the mountains of camping supplies and clothes to talk to my parents in the kitchen. They said we were leaving soon and that I should start packing all of the supplies into our trusty old Ford Expedition. After about 20 minutes of packing our SUV to the brim with all of the things we would need to survive in the wilderness for a few days, we said goodbye to our three cats and headed for Steelville Missouri.

In the backseat of the car, my two best friends by my side. The smell of in-n-out filled our noses and the uneasy feeling sunk into my stomach, heartbeating faster than it has been in a while. The two front windows were rolled down, and the air quickly traveled to the back of the car, air circulating our bodies, winding our hair up in knots. I felt delusional due to staying up late awaiting this moment, but I was so aware. With Madi to my left and Lexi to my right I felt calm, yet anxious. Our favorite band played loud on the radio, we sung along and knew that in a few minutes we would be singing those songs next to the writers of them. I was already longing for them, their music made me feel serene. Like nothing was wrong, the world was a blur and everything else disappeared.

Click. I unfastened my seatbelt. We had arrived. I looked around the Walmart parking lot, where I would be living for the next week. Colton’s grandparents had already arrived with their camper, where we would all be staying. I stepped out of the Explorer

A few hours earlier I had no idea what I was going to be doing with my afternoon. My family and I sat in the car talking, while my mom drove down the freeway. We started to drive into the city, big sky scrapers surrounded us. My mom exited the freeway and headed downtown. I’d only been in Chicago once before, and it had been for a short hour. We drove around until we found a parking garage. I hopped out of the car, stretching my legs. If you have ever been in an underground parking garage you know their cool and can smell pretty awful. Then we headed out to explore.

I walked out of my house on Sunday, telling my parents I was going for a drive. I got in my silver 2007 Chevrolet Aveo. I plugged my phone into the auxiliary cord, and scrolled down my music library, stopping on Frank Sinatra. I clicked the album Ultimate Sinatra, and played “That’s Life”. I put my car in drive and pulled out of my driveway. I drove all over Kansas City that morning.

As the end of the night approached us, I couldn’t stop thinking about how many mixed emotions I had about starting a whole new chapter in my life. I couldn't wait to go to college, meet all new people, get a degree so that I could start my career path, but I knew that meant I had to say goodbye to my two best friends, who were moving several hours away from me. This was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do in my life. We all cried a little, and then made promises to keep in touch, and then we were off into the real world! I was very happy to be at this point in my life, but I was scared deep down inside.

Long distance moving is not only hard on the body, and the mind, but the soul. That cloudy Thursday, I felt my soul beginning to crumble. I laid back in the passenger seat of our modest rust colored Toyota, barely listening to music playing over my headphones, mostly wallowing in my gentle throbs of weariness, and a stressful fear of prolonging the journey. I knew my mother felt the same way, from the way she clutched at the steering wheel, and from the way her sunken eyes looked for the next turn. It didn’t help me, the fifteen-year-old city kid from Chicago, when we pulled off the Ohio Turnpike, to a smaller highway, to an even smaller one, to then exit next to a rusted out truck stop, and onto a small two lane road. Finally, my mom