Creative Writing: Sedona, Arizona

After being dropped off from dance late at night, I was expecting to walk into a silent house where everyone was asleep. Instead, I walked into my living room to find the rest of my family sitting on the couch with the television off, which was strange for my family. It was clear they were waiting for me to get home, so I sat down too. My mom and dad exchanged a look and a sigh then turned back towards my brother and me. They babbled absently for a few minutes, then, my mom quickly spit out the words, as if ripping off a Band-Aid, "We are moving back to Arizona." There was a brief moment of stunned silence before I burst into tears. I could not imagine why my parents would decide to separate me from my best friends six months before we were supposed to

Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley was an experience like no other. The RGV is full of Tex-Mex, laughs, and the most random things you can think of. Despite all its quirks it’s a beautiful place to live in, and it’s home to me.

Every summer I look forward to sitting on a large, warm cabana under the Texas sun. My feet buried in the sand as I welcome the lukewarm waves against my legs. Being a beach bum in South Padre Island, Texas is a great way to bring on the summer. This island isn’t short of attractions, from the beautiful ocean, to tasty restaurants, to fireworks over the ocean you will never get bored on your vacation! Last summer I was joined by a few of my closest friends. We made so many memories as we all went parasailing for the first time. Our relationship grew stronger as we were able to share a new experience together. Spending a few weeks in South Padre Island with family and close friends is a great way to make memories that will last a lifetime.

The summer of 2016, my family decided to shake up our annual summer vacation by heading out west, and chose to go to Sedona, Arizona. Let me tell you, this place radiates beauty. If you've never heard of Sedona, I’ll give you some background real quick. The city IS a desert city. Everywhere you look there's just dirt or sand on the ground and lots of cacti. But the trait that distinguishes the city IS that it sits within a valley in the red rock. All around you stand mountains made of this fiery earth. During our stay there we hiked along many trails through the red rock to almost every tourist spot, some of which gave you a panoramic view of the mountains. The views appeared surreal and took my breath away. Yes, I could go on and on about the beauty of this city, but that's not quite what this story IS about. On this trip, my family and I got up close and personal with some areas of Sedona that one wouldn't call “tourist hotspots.” The town of Jerome is an old mining town built at the base of a mountain, that now has lots of shops and restaurants, and we decided to make this our next destination. So my dad plugged the town into his iPhone GPS (first mistake) and we headed out to reach our destination. Blue sky and deserted land rolled by as I stared out the window. Time seemed to slowly trail by and we did not see signs of the town anywhere. Then suddenly, the smooth asphalt turned to gravel, and immediately something seemed off. “Are you sure we’re going the right way??”

The well known Grand Canyon wasn’t always grand. About 6 millions years ago there live a princess called Artemis, she loved a lot of things like hunting, wilderness, and animals. Her kingdom was located in the territory now called, Arizona. She always had her trusty bow and arrow everywhere she went. She hunted so much that she would bring extra animals to feed the poor. But her father didn’t like that, he was selfish and forbade her to feed the poor anymore. He wanted her daughter to be normal, like wear dresses, have proper manners, and be quiet like every princess should be. She didn’t like that, her passion was to hunt, and possibly become a warrior with her true love. The fault with that dream she had no true love.

San Luis, Colorado is the oldest town in Colorado. The Rio Culebra winds through the valley, surrounded by majestic mountains. It is one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. My family along with many others have been here for generations. The beauty of the land is only accentuated by the beauty of our tight-knit families and culture. To counteract of all the physical and cultural beauty, there is social and economic strife everywhere around me. I live in the poorest county in Colorado and being impoverished is a challenge my community faces because of a lack of education and job deficit. As I have delved into community and family history, I have better understanding that the fact the that while many things like our support and love for family and culture have remain unchanged and untainted, so has the fact that our community struggles

When George came home from work he told me that he had some really good news. Now, I don't know if I would call it good news, but he said that our family needs to move to Oregon. At first I was in such shock because Iowa is such a good place for our family, but a change is always good. The government is giving all males over the age of sixteen 640 acres of free farmland. That is more land then we have right now, and the land won’t be as crowded as the land here in Iowa.

I moved to Arizona from Boston in 2014. We have moved around before, but this was different. We were going across the country. I was sad to leave everything I knew behind for someplace I didn’t really know about. We moved in July, and as August came closer and closer, I got more nervous. Would I sit alone at lunch? Would I like my teachers? As any 6th grader would be before the first day of school, I was scared and a bit nervous. I was pretty shy, always hiding myself in books. So I was relieved to find that we wouldn’t have to find our classes alone on the first day. I was dreading lunch, but I put it out of my mind. That day, in fact, I met one of my best friends. I managed to survive my first day of middle school. And the next. And the next. I even got good grades in math! I sometimes struggle, and did previously, in math.

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).

My mind will often wander to all the places I've lived in and all those I would love to travel to, or visit again. I think of the streets of Santa Fe, how fresh it would be compared to the over 100 degree temperature of were I am now, the hot dry heat of El Paso, Texas, a place I often come back to, the soil were my roots are permanently ingrained. El Paso has grown significantly in the past 10 years alone and is now the sixth most populous city in Texas (World Population Reviw). It's far from it's days when it was widely known as “El Chuco,” or “ChucoTown,” nicknames whose origins and meaning have long been debated, but no matter how much of the new generation is unfamiliar with these terms the history lives on through the streets and current

Relocating from Florida back to Arizona was quite the journey. We went through terrible weather changes and and other dreadful like things on the trip. On the day we took off to board the greyhound we found out that the train had been experiencing some difficulties performing like the rest of them, but we had been told that the problems were fixed and that we shouldn't be worried. So we trusted in this man and what he had told us and i see now that was a big mistake, so we boarded the train took off our bags and we were all excited and could'nt wait to get back to see granny the rest of the family. Finally the train took off and the journey began I took a seat and felt relieved and calm but at the same time I felt uneasy and i just couldn't

I was born in El Paso, Texas to Mexican immigrant parents who did their best to raise me and my three siblings. Growing up in El Paso I never even saw myself applying to college, but then my dad made a bold choice to start a career in homeland security and that was when we moved to the DFW area. Ever since we moved to DFW every grade in junior high, i was talked to about college: how to get there, how to pay for it, and how to make it a reality. The thought of going to college never even crossed my mind before coming here. Now as a Senior in high school I'am doing everything in my abilities to make my dreams come true, to go to college and graduate to make my parents proud and prove to them that all their sacrifices haven't gone by without

In 2011 on a very cold December night, my dad told me something that I will never forget. My siblings and I were all sitting in my fathers very out dated apartment, eating hamburger helper and watching a movie on his small 32 inch t.v.

Longview, Texas is a unique hometown for many reasons. First of all because, more than likely, any given person who attends Texas A&M and did not play football in high school has never heard of it. When meeting new people in college, I’m always asked where I’m from and 90% of the time the response I hear is “Oh I’ve never heard of that”, 9.5% of the time I hear “Is that kinda by Houston?” (a question that, after hearing for several semesters, I’ll just respond yes), and finally .5% of people I meet know where Longview actually is. Living in a small town—not in the suburbs to any city—offered a unique perspective on life going into college. There are 4 high schools in town. The largest, Longview High, was an athletic and academic powerhouse: always going to state

The landscape is stark, but the beauty startling. The expanses seem to welcome, even beg you to explore. It’s a call you are unlikely to be able to resist (assuming it’s not scorchingly hot and you are not hungover from a big night in moments-away Las Vegas), nor is it one you should. In front of you is one of America’s grand spectacles, Red Rock Canyon.