One month before my 10th birthday, my father picked me up from school. I was an after-school program kid, and we were still milling around the door to the cramped portable, hanging up backpacks and chatting with friends from other classes, when my name was called. That should have been my first clue that this would be a day of change. Both of my parents were in the Navy, and I was often one of the last few kids to go home. My second clue should have been when I saw my dad’s dusty, dented black Dodge sitting in front of the main office, steam swirling around the engine in the January chill as I waited for him to sign me out for the day. Such responsibilities as picking up the kids from school, making sure we had clothes laid out for the next
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The response was barely there, and I don’t think my dad really was either. We crawled around a loop along the outside ring of buildings, pulling into the sparsely filled parking lot in front of number 10. I glimpsed a large pond through the alley between 10 and 11, where there was a honking family of geese lazing about. It was cold for a Florida winter, but not so cold that the geese didn’t hang out for the season. The two duffle bags he carried up the two flights of stairs should have been my third clue. 1010. My dad didn’t knock, and unlocked the door with his own key, the grinding as it turned in the brand new lock echoing those mental gears in my head starting to turn again.
“What do you think?” There wasn’t much to think about. A red Lazy-Boy was pushed against the far wall, facing a small TV resting on a basic computer desk. I shyly walked farther into the living room, noticing in an alcove to the left a round table and two chairs that looked oddly like the set I had eaten breakfast at that morning. The blinds over the open glass door to the balcony clattered in the midafternoon breeze. “Uh, it’s cool.” What was I supposed to say? ‘Nice cardboard box tower, Dad’?
“This is where I’ll be staying for the next 6 months. Do you remember your friend Namika from Guam? And Ken and Chei? I’m going to be moving there in July to work for them.” I felt like there was something missing …show more content…
You haven’t been there since you were 4 and your mom was stationed at Anderson. Not much is for sure yet, but when I get settled there we can figure out the details.” Now this could be cool, I thought. I was thinking about how my brothers always picked on me, and how my dad was the one that spoiled me, and how it could be so fun to be on an island with just him! I had thought the weekly switching between my mom and dad was difficult to get used to, but once the yearly switch started, that’s when I really learned about how to cope with change. With dad, there were only two seasons (Rainy and Dry), private schools and uniforms, and trying to fit in with a new culture that blindsided me at every turn. If my grades weren’t as good as or better than Ken and Chei’s daughters, I knew it.
With mom, it had become frantically hunting for single socks in the morning, and ‘Did you put your homework in your backpack, did you even do your homework?’ ,but at least the seasons stayed the same. How did something that once appeared so permanent get so completely flipped on its
The response was barely there, and I don’t think my dad really was either. We crawled around a loop along the outside ring of buildings, pulling into the sparsely filled parking lot in front of number 10. I glimpsed a large pond through the alley between 10 and 11, where there was a honking family of geese lazing about. It was cold for a Florida winter, but not so cold that the geese didn’t hang out for the season. The two duffle bags he carried up the two flights of stairs should have been my third clue. 1010. My dad didn’t knock, and unlocked the door with his own key, the grinding as it turned in the brand new lock echoing those mental gears in my head starting to turn again.
“What do you think?” There wasn’t much to think about. A red Lazy-Boy was pushed against the far wall, facing a small TV resting on a basic computer desk. I shyly walked farther into the living room, noticing in an alcove to the left a round table and two chairs that looked oddly like the set I had eaten breakfast at that morning. The blinds over the open glass door to the balcony clattered in the midafternoon breeze. “Uh, it’s cool.” What was I supposed to say? ‘Nice cardboard box tower, Dad’?
“This is where I’ll be staying for the next 6 months. Do you remember your friend Namika from Guam? And Ken and Chei? I’m going to be moving there in July to work for them.” I felt like there was something missing …show more content…
You haven’t been there since you were 4 and your mom was stationed at Anderson. Not much is for sure yet, but when I get settled there we can figure out the details.” Now this could be cool, I thought. I was thinking about how my brothers always picked on me, and how my dad was the one that spoiled me, and how it could be so fun to be on an island with just him! I had thought the weekly switching between my mom and dad was difficult to get used to, but once the yearly switch started, that’s when I really learned about how to cope with change. With dad, there were only two seasons (Rainy and Dry), private schools and uniforms, and trying to fit in with a new culture that blindsided me at every turn. If my grades weren’t as good as or better than Ken and Chei’s daughters, I knew it.
With mom, it had become frantically hunting for single socks in the morning, and ‘Did you put your homework in your backpack, did you even do your homework?’ ,but at least the seasons stayed the same. How did something that once appeared so permanent get so completely flipped on its