We were all fidgeting. It was our last day of kindergarten and we all wanted to start our summer. The clock read 1:55 P.M. Only five more minutes. I looked around the room and saw all the familiar faces I was friends with. Ashley, my front door neighbor and best friend of all time. She had an amazing birthday party planned in late June. Peter, he was so cute, I had admired him from afar all year and was hoping to get a chance to talk to him at Ashley’s party. Then there was Ms.Geiger, our teacher. She was tall for a woman and always walked with a sort of elegance you only see on the runway. She was pulling back strands of her dirty blonde hair that somehow always looked beautiful while sniffling. She was sad we were leaving and was touched by the presents we all had brought her. I was going to miss all of this, the playtime, the nap time, and the special lunchroom for us younger kids. Yet a whole new life was waiting for me, a life of a big kid, a 1st grader, a 7 year old. In first grade we would be allowed to enter the big fields outside with the tall monkey bars during recess. Summer was the perfect time to practice my skills at the local parks and it was only 1 minute away. The bell rang just then and I ran out as quickly as I could and jumped on my mom who was always waiting outside.
“I have great news honey! Get strapped in the back seat so I can tell you all about it!” I hopped in, buckled up and waited for her to continue. As I waited for her to continue I looked at her face. She was so beautiful. She was older than most moms with a six year old on their hands, I would say about 46. Her hair was cut short at her shoulders dyed a dark red color. Her red hair was always my favorite; it reminded me of my own Hispanic Little Mermaid Princess. She was smiling from ear to ear, one of her best characteristics.
“I bought you a ticket to go see your family in Colombia for the whole summer!”
I was shocked. What was this? She had gone from The Little Mermaid to Ursula herself. A traitor and backstabber. My summer was ruined and all she did was grin. I was to leave the day after tomorrow for three full months to meet this group of strangers I was to call family.
Two days and two hours and a half later I was getting off the plane in Cali, Colombia and was to greet the people that were to torture me for the next three months. I was getting my last bag when I saw an old woman holding a sign that read my name. I may have only been six at the time but I could at least read my name. I approached her slowly. Her face was worn, as if she had had a hard life; she seemed to have a permanent hunch and was dressed in the tackiest floral print dress I had ever laid my eyes on. She recognized me and lunged at me with her arms wide open. I hugged her back softly thinking to myself this must be grandma. After I escaped her death grip I got my grandfather, my aunt Patricia, my uncle Chacho, my cousin Christian and my cousin Federico introduced to me. They all just stared for awhile and began to ask how I had been doing. I would only respond good over and over again to be polite, but really did these people believe that this is how I wanted to spend my summer?
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