Moving Back and Forth

by KO

When I came to Arizona it was kind of hard for me to make new friends because I had already made friends in California. Right before I was leaving from Cali we were going to go to Great America, and I was going to take this girl who I called my best friend Jasmine, but my mom said we couldn’t go anymore because we had to get on a Greyhound. I was like, Greyhound? Isn’t a hound a dog?, and I didn’t understand.

I was really sad packing my suitcase. I made believe I folded my clothes and just threw them in the suitcase. When my mom came into the room she didn’t say anything, she just looked around and noticed I hadn’t really done anything. I just said, “Okay.” And started to really pack my clothes like she wanted me to do, because I already knew she was going to try and give me a lecture on why I should just listen and finish so we wouldn’t miss our greyhound, which she still didn’t tell me what a greyhound was.

When I finished bunching all my clothes into my suitcase I went down stairs and I was looking at most of my things that entertain me, like my scooter, my bike, my magic eight ball, and some other things, and people were coming over and they were picking up things and looking. Then my mom came around the corner with another box and I said, “Mom, what are all these people doing here and why are my things outside?” Then she said, “Baby, it’s called a garage sale.” I said, “Well, you don’t have to sell any of my things.” And then she went on and on and on and on, you have too many toys, why can’t you share, stop being so selfish. I said, “They’re not toys!” And then she said, “So what are they?” And my response was, “They’re my personal things to keep me busy.”

I took a couple of my things and stuffed them in my suitcase, and finally I got them inside the suitcase. The next thing you know, my mom closed the garage door and my suitcase shot open right when she got in the room, and in my mind I’m thinking, oh no what’s about to happen now? And she said “WHAT THE? TAMARASHAUN KIYREEAUNA OVERALL!!!!!! What is going on?” I said, “I just wanted to take some of my valuable things I play with…” She said, “If you don’t get these clothes and stuff up so we can go you’re gonna be left in this house by yourself.” And I said, “Well that’s better for me.” And she said, “I am not playing, you got 2.5 seconds to get this mess up and don’t make me have to speak to you again!!!” So finally after all the yelling we got in the car and then my mom started yelling at me some more and I just looked out the window and ignored her. I think she’s just gonna miss California, I thought.

We rode up to this parking lot, and I’m like what are we doing here??? We got out of the car. The trunk popped open and we got our bags. We walked inside the building in front of the parking lot, and there were a lot of people and all I could do was look around the gigantic room. There were chairs, video games, and vending machines with M&M’s which were, and still are, my favorite candy. For a minute I was begging my mom for a dollar so I could get my favorite candy, but for some reason she kept telling me NO and I was getting mad because I really wanted that candy.
Then a big bus pulled up and I was amazed by it so much that I forgot about the candy and I went to the window and stared in amazement. My mom asked me if I wanted the candy still and I just ignored her and said, “I want to get on that!” She said, “We are in a minute, after all the people get off, and the driver says we can get on.” We took that bus to Arizona, and lived there for five years. That day when we had to get on the bus and leave California still seems like it was yesterday, because all I could think about was my old friends in California and how much I would miss them.

This past July, the week before my birthday and the summer before 8th grade, we moved back to California. I was happy to move back, but when I got here, I didn’t get to see that many of my old friends. Instead, I made a lot of new friends. I’ve learned not to get too attached to a place, because then you’ll want to move back.