“You know Jessica, right?”
Yes, I did know her. She was the older brunette woman that would occasionally greet us from behind the neatly polished desk on the first floor of the building. I believe she was the landlord.
“Well, recently your father and I received a letter from her, and well...we can’t stay here anymore. We have to move…”
I was speechless for a while. I had just settled down with the new high school experience and thought I was on my toes for once. And my friends, oh what was I gonna do without them? Some of whom I had known since I was in nursery school. This was going to be hard for me, and I was well aware of it.
The next few months brought lots of stress and phone calls. Mama and Papa were always one the edge and I tried my best not to push their buttons, but certain times I slipped and received a beating of words. More days passed and finally it seemed that there was some hope for us. My aunt Kathy had constructed living arrangements for us at her small ranch home in a town up north. I wasn’t overly impressed that it was so far away and different from where I’d grown up, but it seemed to be our only option.
When I say our only option, I am referring to my mother, father, and me. Well, it seems that it wasn’t my father’s only choice. To shorten things up, he wouldn’t be accompanying us on our journey up north.
Sure enough, the two of us found our way up to the ranch and eventually settled down. Aunt Kathy and her husband, Jake, were so supportive and understanding of the situation, which really helped my mother and me. We had learned to overlook the past. And no matter how dark the tunnel seemed, we kept our eye on the light at the end and kept walking. At times we were scared, I cannot lie about that, but we knew that everything would be alright.
Years later, after being enrolled in a new school, I graduated, which was a great feeling of freedom and opportunities. From there on my life finally seemed back on track. Through the grace of God I was introduced to a man named Ted, who was amazing and brought so much joy into my life.
I was even lucky enough to be able to take his last name. From there on we moved into our own little ranch house and started a family, having seven beautiful children. Sure there were still rough patches throughout my life, but I learned how to change my perspective on life. I began to focus on what is good and, most importantly, to keep walking. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired, or if your feet hurt. You MUST keep going because good things are ahead, even if you can’t always see them in the distance.