Renaissance In Paradise

 “The day has finally arrived!” I exclaimed to myself as I drove to the airport. I was flying to Cancun, Mexico. It’s my first time there. I am nervous, scared, anxious, excited and beyond happy. During the flight I keep trying to imagine what the moment is going to be like when I arrive and I see her. I keep repeating the moment in my head over and over again. Will I cry? Will we just hug?  I had been waiting for this day for six months. I was finally going to see my mom.

            December 18, 2008 was the saddest day of my life. I had just been told my mom was removed from the country. She wasn’t coming back home—at least not for another five years. Days later I found that I can’t stay in San Antonio (where I used to live); I have to go live with my dad and step-mom to Laredo. “That’s just what I needed” I muttered to myself, “this just keeps getting better and better”. Not only did I lose my mom, my house, and my cat (whom I had to put to sleep due to the circumstances), but I would lose my long-time friends and the school and teachers I loved. I felt as if bomb after bomb was being thrown at me and each one hit harder and harder.

            The plane landed at last. As I waited for my suitcase I got more butterflies in my stomach. Knees shaking, voice trembling, heart beating faster and faster as I moved towards the enormous sliding-glass door. “Just a few more steps”, I mumbled under my breath. As I am passing through the glass door, I turn right, then left, everywhere around me looking for my mom. I’m walking to my left and there she was standing with her hair pulled back, a red tank-top, a khaki-colored skirt and flip-flops. We made eye contact, she brought her hand to her mouth and her eyes filled up with tears. I walked up to her. We were finally holding each other at last.

            I spent a month and twenty-five days with my mom and my grandmother in their newly-rented apartment. We went to a lot of different places like: Isla Mujeres, Xcaret, Xel-ha, and Playa del Carmen, restaurants, cafés and shopping malls.  I’ve been to a lot of places, but this trip I would say it saved me and changed who I was as a person.  I was revitalized. I was so depressed and so heartbroken because of the whole experience; some days I did not have any motivation to get out of bed.  The whole experience of losing almost everything I had—especially my mom changed me. I don’t take anything for granted anymore. I grew up. I now see life from a whole different perspective and point of view.

We spent every waking hour of the day together. Spending all that time away from my mom and spending the whole summer with her in such a magical place like Cancun healed all the wounds I had, and changed my relationship with her. I got to know her and enjoy her like never before in my life. I was now appreciating her more than ever. She went from being my mother to being my best friend, the sister I never had, my confident. Those days we spent on the beach by ourselves where we talked, cried and laughed, under the blue sky, white-sand beach and aquamarine-colored water are moments that I will never, ever forget.