The Skies were no longer light blue and there was no ocean breeze or humidity. Darkness surrounded the air and it felt just as dark as my world, having to move away from everything once again. But with darkness comes light, both in the sky separating night and day and in our own worlds, distinguishing the good times and the bad. I lifted the shade of the airplane window to my left. The skies were a burnt orange as the sun rose over the puffy clouds. I have always loved nature and sunrises/sunsets, and this was a truly spectacular one. One that reminded me that there is still good things in life and good things about this new adventure. After landing in Houston for a layover, I was both mentally and physically exhausted. Physically exhausted from the red eye flight that had taken six hours. Mentally exhausted from saying goodbye to the great friends I had made once again. Despite being exhausted, I was not able to sleep as certain questions repeated in my mind: How would I make great friends like Ethan and Jared again? What was my new neighbor Jane going to be like? How was my new high school going to be different? These were questions that I pondered again and again as we boarded the plane to head to D.C. and I slowly drifted off to sleep for what seemed like the first time in days.
I woke up two hours later to hear the flight attendant announcing that we were just a little under half an hour away from landing. Looking out the window of the plane to my right, all I could see was a blue sky dotted with puffy clouds but moments later, the freeway came into the view, the cars looking very small in the air. Not long after, the National Mall could be seen with the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.
“Isn’t this so exciting!” my mother exclaimed as she looked over my shoulder down on the National Mall. She had always loved history so this was a big deal for her.
“Yeah the best…” I replied looking out the window. There were no palm trees. No beaches or mountains to hike. No Jared or Ethan. Grabbing the bags from baggage claim, getting the rental car, then proceeding to pick up Wendell and Lulu seemed to take longer than the flights. The biggest similarity between Washington D.C. and Hawaii was that the weather was both hot and humid. In Hawaii, there is a few military bases here and there but that is it. Washington D.C. is home to the Pentagon, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and many other important buildings and people such as the President of the United States. So naturally, there is many different bases and military families in the area. That was what we were doing here. My dad was to go through a year of training before going to Indonesia. We were going to be staying at Bolling Air Force Base and on the way there, I looked around. The architecture of many of the buildings was red brick, giving off a very old fashioned feeling.
Arriving at Bolling not long after, we stood outside the TLF (Temporary Living Facility) before unloading the car for the thousandth time. The air was hot as the sun broke through the clouds and bared down upon us. Unloading the car was another long process but eventually, everything was in the room and there was time to relax. By this point, it was evening and I couldn’t wait to tell my friends from Hawaii about the similarities and differences that I noticed on my first day here. The first person that came to my mind to talk to was Alana. She told me how she had come to Washington D.C. with Yearbook for a National Convention and how one of the students at the convention learned that she was from Hawaii. The girl proceeded to ask Alana stereotypical questions about Hawaii and I roared with laughter as Alana told me her responses to some of the questions. The subject of Jane came up afterwards, and since I had not yet met her, I still didn’t know what she was like.
“I think that you will become great friends with Jane! She’ll keep an eye out for you and introduce you to all her friends! You’ll definitely be able to hit it off with them!” exclaimed Alana in a message to me. Alana and I talked for hours and it was around midnight that I realized how exhausted I was and I bade Alana goodnight, falling into a peaceful sleep for the first time in ages. The new adventure was beginning and it was off to a good start. The next day, I received an invitation to go to a National’s baseball game with my three favorite cousins, Miranda, Krystal, and Bailey. I immediately accepted the invitation, not only because of my love for sports, but it was also an opportunity to see my three favorite cousins for the first time in two years. We laughed and talked and I was asked questions such as how I felt about leaving Hawaii and how I was feeling. “I honestly feel really happy! I’m excited to go to a new high school and start a new adventure.” I replied when Bailey asked me how I felt about starting my senior year. When the game ended, I was invited to spend the next couple of days at their house and I once again accepted the offer. Being at my aunt’s house was just like old times because we would sit around the living room lazily watching movies or telling funny stories or we would be huddled around the fire pit, enjoying the cool night breeze.
My parents came to pick me up a couple days afterwards, signaling that it was time to drive up to our new home in McLean, Virginia. The drive was about 45 minutes away but felt shorter than a plane flight as I looked out the window at the scenes racing by. About an hour later, we entered our neighborhood and after a couple of wrong turns, we drove into the cold-a-sac and into the driveway of our new home. A tall blonde woman came racing out the house next to ours as the car doors slammed shut and she introduced herself as our neighbor Janis, or as I had heard of her, Jane’s mom. Janis had a spare key into the house and let us in. Like many buildings around the D.C. area, the house’s main foundation was red brick, giving the house a very old fashioned feel. The creaking floorboards only expanded on the idea of old fashioned. The house was two stories with many rooms and included a deck that looked over the backyard. The backyard was very spacious with a lot of grass and many oak trees, giving it the feel of a forest. Since I have the love for nature, I loved the backyard and the house in general. After exploring the backyard for a while, I joined everyone else standing at the bottom of the driveway, listening to Janis tell my parents about the different things to do in McLean.
“I should get Jane down here so she can meet Graham!” said Janis as she turned around and started to walk back to her house but it was too late. There was a girl a little shorter than Janis walking down the driveway towards us. The girl had curly blonde hair and bore a striking resemblance to Janis. This was Jane.
