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I was born in Seattle, Washington, where I lived until I was four. At that very young age my mother, father, and I made the trek to Texas. I have lived there ever since. I haven’t been very many places in my life. I’ve never even traveled outside the United States, although there was one memorable trip.
It was the fall semester of my freshman year in high school. One day she told me that she had a surprise for me and I couldn’t think of anything. That night she told we were going to Seattle for a couple of days. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t contain my excitement and immediately started to pack. It had been ten years since I had been to Seattle.
The day we were to be in Seattle, we had to be to the airport by 5:30 in the morning. The airport was ghostly empty, with only one or two shops open. Our flight had a layover in Denver. I remember looking out my window and seeing beautiful snow-capped mountains and a twinkling city below. The view was breath-taking.
Our flight from Denver to Tacoma was short and colder than I’m used to. Once we landed and checked into our tiny hotel, we walked to the Cheese Cake Factory and had dinner. The ‘homeless’ in Seattle are much more honesty than those in Texas. As we came out of the restaurant they asked specifically for our food, not money, not a ride, but food. That touched my heart, because that meant these teens were truly in need to be that desperate to want just food. Another thing that I loved about the city was how green it was, everywhere we went there were three ‘trash cans’, each labeled something different (trash, paper, glass).
The next day I saw my ‘twin’, Cherish, for the first time in ten years. I call her my twin because we were born two days apart and ever since that day until the day I left, we spent together. Our one day together the clouds parted and the sun shone through, as if heaven was smiling on our meeting. There was a lake we used to go to all the time, according to my mother, when I was younger. We walked the three miles around it and the views were gorgeous. We then went to a beach, where water was crystal clear, so clear that you could see straight to the bottom. After our time outdoors, we went to the mall. What else would you expect from two teenaged girls? From the mall we took the tram to the Space Needle. The sun was setting magnificently in the sky and unfortunately that was a sign that time with Cherish was as well.
The most magical thing about that autumn day was more than clear sky, more than the ocean water, but how easily Cherish and I fell into sync. As an on looker to our day no one would have guessed that we had not seen each other in a decade. Talking, laughing, and hanging out with her felt so natural. It was like a piece of my soul let out a breath, I didn’t even know it was holding.
The following day I spent with my mom, we explored the beautiful city that I called home as a child. We went to Pike’s Place Market on the shore front, to the modern art museum in downtown, and walked the twinkling night streets of Seattle, Washington. This trip with my mother is one that I will never forget.
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