My Childhood as I knew it!!
The smell of spring flowers, the dust that has been blown by the wind from the kids playing with chalk on the sidewalk. The beautiful flowers and leaves on the trees are all starting to come in. outside playing with the neighborhood children. There is never enough time in the world. When the street lights come on I have to be on my way in the house. Ahhhh my favorite, as I try to sneak past my mom before she notices I wasn’t in the kitchen helping my older sister cook. “Shouldn’t you be in the kitchen helping with something young lady?” There’s a thing about cooking my native food, it takes a lot of time and effort. So playing outside was my way out of the work. We had a big dining room table that we all sat at to eat and enjoy each other’s company. It was always best to eat before you got in the tub because if you know anything about African foods they are strong in smells that most people are not used to. I enjoyed those times watching my father laugh so much that he couldn’t eat. He would always tell us stories from his childhood, constantly giving us encouraging words about how important education is. I would sit there and take it all in. He would ask me to go on his evenings walks with him after I did the dishes. I loved our walks because that was when we would catch up on what went on in our day in details. I got a lot of life lessons on our walks. My father was a very lively person, he was one of those people that knew a lot about a lot. He was always willing to lend a hand. He loved his family with all he had. Super Man had nothing on him. He worked hard came home in time help with homework. He loves The Sampson’s show and even though it is a bit inappropriate, it was our thing. I looked forward to the intro scene every week because it was always something different. He was such a great example of a man. He was the kind of father that you could go to and talk to about any and everything. The only thing my father was strict about was education. We are from West Africa, Liberia. A better education was one of the reasons we had to relocate. For as far as I can remember he was always in school. He would always tell me the story about his mother not being educated. My grandmother, his mother valued education more than anything else. Maybe it was because she was forced to sell as a little girl and never got the opportunity to go to school. She didn’t speak a word of English but she could read your report card. In Liberia when you got your report card all the good grades were in blue or black ink and all the bad ones were in red ink. Now that I think about it, it was probably because of the huge percentage of uneducated people. Well, my father said when he would bring his report card home, all my grandmother would look for were any red marks. If there were any she would yell at him saying “why do you have chicken blood on your paper?” I knew the importance of then as well as now. The only difference is now I know how valuable education truly is. Over the years other the somehow we drifted apart. Maybe it was the coming of age or the fact that I wasn’t all he had hoped I’d turn out to be. The wedge to grow between us and it just got bigger and bigger over the years. My father had another straight rule and that was NO BOYS!! I started noticing boys and they started noticing me too. My father didn’t like that which made us grow even further apart. He felt boys were a distraction for me, I just liked that they liked me. Every time a boy would call for me he would voice his opinion on the matter. I felt like he didn’t understand. In fact, we both started to not understand each other. Things got so bad during my high school years that I got kicked out of the house after coming home past 9 pm one night. I was 18 and he was sick of my crap. Since I didn’t want to abide by his rules and felt I was grown. I didn't have anywhere else to go but I was so angry with him for not trusting my judgment that I stormed out with just a book bag full of clothes. I was working and I was going to proof to him I didn’t need him. I made a few calls and was able to find a place for the night. A few months later my mother was able to track me and she asked me to go back home. I was having the time of my life without a care in the world. I did not want to go home, but I couldn’t say no to my mom. I missed the freedom of not having to come home at a certain time. I started looking for ways to get kicked out again. This time it was worst I had gotten a taste of freedom and I wanted more. I finally managed to get kicked out. At this point I had a boyfriend so to me it was the perfect opportunity to spend more time with him. I happily left home this time. I had a job, a boyfriend, and a spot to sleep every night. What could go wrong? Well, a whole lot. For one I was still in high school and two there’s no place like home. Trouble always same to have found me. I got tired of doing whatever I wanted to do and decided to go back home. It was fall and all the leaves had fallen off the trees. They all looked like skeletons. The night skies fell quickly. As I hurried through the falling leaves I noticed something I hadn’t noticed in a long time. Traces of chalk left from the summer before, expect they were almost gone. There wasn’t any laughter I could almost feel the cold of winter slapping me in the face. I hurriedly rang the doorbell, my little brother opened the door. He gives me a double look as if he notice something new about me. Where’s everyone? He pointed to where felt like at the time the room of no return. I walked in and greeted everyone individually. When I got to my father I couldn’t help but notice that his face hair and skin was starting to show signs of aging. There were a couple of specks of gray hair that I never noticed were there before. My eyes followed a few lines of wrinkles that led me to his lips. Lips that looked like they had not smiled in years. For the first time, I noticed something unfamiliar. I noticed the sadness in his eyes. This time around things were different, I saw his point better. Experience had thought me that all along he truly had my best interest at heart. He just wasn’t very good at communicating that. We all went around sharing our feelings. When it was my time to share I took my time and first apologized for all the headaches I cost over the years. I explained that I would like to come back home and stay with my family. They wanted to know what had changed my mind. I noticed how my home had changed, there were things in places that weren’t there before. My brother was in the kitchen making himself a plate. He got taller and I missed it. He had always been shorter than me. He had finally caught up. I was too busy being selfish and I missed it all. There I was sitting in a very familiar spot except nothing was the same. I had changed and so had they. I wasn’t such a little kid anymore and there was no turning back now. I made my bed and I had to lay in it. The innocence of my childhood was gone. My body was preparing me for the brand new chapter that I had no idea about. The smell of the food in the microwave started to make me nauseous. I turned to the window that was cracked a little to help me from not throwing up. The some food that used to make me salivate was now causing an opposite reaction. As I looked out the window I couldn’t help but notice a little bush that hadn’t lost all its flowers yet. There was a little flower that stuck out to me. It was the only one that had not lost all of its colors yet. It looked totally out of place but it was right where it belonged.
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