Personal Narrative: Life In Oklahoma

I leaned my head against the car window watching the leaves blowing around, just trying to distract myself from a slight feeling of emptiness inside of me. This feeling seemed all too familiar to me. My family and I had all of our possessions packed into boxes yet again. We were moving to a new state. At this point, up rooting our lives and starting over almost seemed more like a hobby than anything more significant. However, I have just now come to realize that what seemed like constant inconveniences in the past, have actually taught me how to be the best me with influences all around the country. Living in three different states and five homes may have been a challenge, but it provided me with memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything because those moments created the person I am today.

Have you ever moved? I have and It’s hard, packing up and moving along with leaving any friends or family behind. Moving to a place you only visit once a year is, though, also I have only seen a small part of this state, the area by my grandma’s house. The summer of 20ll was a rough time. It was the year we moved from Florida to Kansas because my mom found a better job.

Growing up I lived in the small town of Duncan, Oklahoma; although, not nearly as small as the town I currently reside in. Throughout my adolescence, I attended Mark Twain Elementary School and as I was ending the third grade, my parents decided that we should move to Fox, Oklahoma to be closer to my grandparents. Moving would bring big changes my way such as a smaller school, living in the middle of nowhere, and new ways of entertainment. Living in the country has its pros and cons, but I can tell you the only thing I could think of the night we moved out there was the cons. Eventually, I had grown accustomed to the silence, lack of traffic, and having nothing to do. Looking back I feel that if we had not moved to the country then I would

Looking back out of the small window, I catch a final glimpse of corn fields and lonely railroad crossings before they dip below the horizon. For my first time on a plane, the excitement of adventure meets me as I depart from the comfort of home and enter a world unknown outside of Nebraska. Seeing the world in God’s view as the landscape evolves below, I fall in love with flying. Looking down from 30,000 feet and seeing earth on such a vast scale, I realize how much there is to discover.

Before my big move to Houston about three years ago for college, it was my last summer back home in a little city called Amarillo, which is considered “West Texas,” although it’s actually located geographically north within the heart of the Texas Panhandle. I was enjoying every last bits of the time that I’ve had left with my friends and family. The last thing I could think of worrying about during that summer was a romantic relationship. My intentions were to make bittersweet memories and to have what they would call, fun. I went out almost every single weekend for the first month of my last summer and met tons of friends and I became closer to old casual friends. Within that first month of consistently going out and hanging out with all these friends that I became close to, I met a very sweet, charming, and interesting guy named Andy. Something about him caught my attention. He was silly and funny without even trying, so I took an interest in him. We started messaging each other on Facebook then texting and making polite conversations. Before I knew it, this was the starting point to a whole new friendship. When he first messaged me, as much as I hesitated to respond to him because I knew I was moving and I did not want to develop feelings just leave everything behind, I wanted to not just respond but to strike more conversations. I became curious about him and I wanted to find out more and more.

Change can be good sometimes. This however, was not a good change. It was so ugly there! Here in Arizona, we have the desert but we also have the mountains. In the area I lived, you couldn't see the silhouette of a mountain against any sunset. Just the golden color grass swaying in the breeze for miles. It doesn't sound all that bad until I mention how there were barely any trees!! For some people like me, this can be a problem, for others not so much. I was so disappointing. I could not go rock climbing, hiking, nor walking! There were too many dens of snakes everywhere by where I had lived. If I was to be outside, I had tall boots and pants on. If your a nature lover, this place could be compared to

thing, but this was bad for the farmer, lower prices meant that the farmer had to grow enormous

When I arrived in Dallas, I was legitimately surprised to see that people in Texas were normal. They were not all wearing cowboy hats and boots with pistols tucked into their belts. I was ten years old, and I had just become accustomed to life in Missouri, right after leaving to Texas. Previously, I had moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Missouri when my dad’s job relocated us. Then, my dad quit his job and decided to pursue his dreams of owning a cattle ranch because his job had asked he relocate us to White Plains, New York. While his worst nightmare was being forced to live in a crowded, bustling urban municipality, mine included simply moving again.Visions of tumbleweed and desert haunted me the days following his announcement. This

This led to bad eating habits. Also the nearest grocery store was across town. There was a convenience store and local grocer near by, but like Kendall, I had my share of canned peaches, spam, and ‘pop’ or soda. However, my grandparents did have a garden and raised chickens.

The birds, squirrels, and fishes living in tranquility. The daylight there is an early riser, while the night feels like a mother rocking her baby; peaceful. Therefore, the nights are so still that only the beautiful harmony of the crickets could be heard. The green tree looks so alive, they were standing large and stiff. There was even the opportunity of exploring the mountain trails. It was amazing being able to experience something completely different, especially when it was just a few days from starting my junior year. The memories from that trip will be unforgettable.

I grew up in a city named Colorado City, TX – the city is located in Central West Texas. I had a really good friend, that I became best friends with, named Daniel. We went riding our bikes everywhere around this little town, scraping our knees on concrete and crashing our bikes on practically everything (since there was practically nothing to do in this town – this was before the 3M Palace Theatre was reopened).

Being from rural Mississippi, people from other states assume that we know very little about what goes on outside our state let alone our own town. In a way, I can see why, but glad I am one of the ones who, thanks to my family, have an idea of a world larger than my town. I am from a family of six consisting of my mother, father, step-mother, brother, and identical twin sister. We did a lot of traveling when growing up normally traveling out of state even if just for weekends. My interest in other cultures and languages came from my family, especially on my mother’s side where I members who traveled out of country for work and would bring us back clothes, books, or other souvenirs. My dad did not do as much traveling as my mom and had not

Organic ranchers and dairy farmers in California also feel the effects of the drought. They rely on green pasture to feed their animals a healthy diet. Due to the lack of rain, the pasture are drying up and the ranchers have to purchase supplemental organic hay from other states. In an attempt to fund the purchasing of this out of state hay, the organic farmers are selling herds to businesses for hamburger meat and the small

Added to the financial risk of farming, already gambling on soil and weather and crops.

“When we have the first serious crop failure, which will happen,” says farm commodity expert Don Coxe, “we will then have a full-blown food crisis” – one far worse than 2008.