In the past

Me and my family were struggling back up in San Francisco. Not surprising that living in a city like that is expensive. With five people in a single apartment it was a little cramped. But, we did what we could to stay there. It was awful news when my father was let go from his job. Once that happened they figured out a plan to move someplace else. The rent in our apartment was expensive, and it was increasing slowly, but steadily. I vividly remember the gathering of items from our rooms. I was grabbing toys of course, some action figures and legos.  Walking through the carpeted hallway repeatedly. Grabbing things before leaving that place forever. I was so young at that time, I wasn’t even in school yet. So just like a kid, I was confused about what was happening. We walked down the long corridor into the elevator, and went to our truck. Beginning the 12 hour journey down to where we now live. Currently we are living with our Grandma. I share a room with my brother, and my sister has her own room. In the end, we got through our financial struggles.

The old family problems

Getting along with my family is quite difficult because of age differences and a language barrier. Although it is not often that I get to see my cousins, it’s fun when I do. Surprisingly I have a bunch of family members that live somewhat close to where we live now. The last time we all met up was in 2019 at one of my uncle’s houses. It was a christmas party, where at least 50 people were there. At the time I was slightly overwhelmed with the amount of people that gathered in that house. My uncle owns a very nice house. Having three floors, many rooms, plus each floor up is pretty huge. I vividly remember walking up the stairs, looking back down at the people below. Another alternative to getting upstairs was a weird air pressure elevator. It was the first time I ever saw something like that before. After a while, everyone gathered on the first floor. Having the only thing that everyone in the world likes together…food. Eating food was probably the best way to get along with other people. Even if we couldn’t understand each other.

Stargazing

A while ago, probably when I was around the age of 13 I remember thinking what to do that evening. I had nothing to do, just wandering around doing anything to really entertain myself. I took a picnic blanket and walked out to my front lawn. Opening the door I felt a nice breeze of cool air surrounding me as I opened the front door. I walked outside and touched the grass. The grass was filled with dew and moisture from the cold, still air. Walking to the center of the lawn, I placed the picnic blanket down. Laying down, I looked up at the sky. A dark blue took up the sky with not a cloud in sight. Some stars were starting to appear in the night sky, with a little twinkle. Around an hour later I was still laying out there. Little, far away stars appear more and more. My sister opened the front door asking what I was doing out on the lawn. I replied, stargazing and just laying here. She put on her shoes and went to join me. Looking up at the now darker sky. Of course we started guessing what planets were among the stars. I am confident that we named Venus in the sky. But the others could just be random stars. I remembered the telescope that my dad had in the garage. Too bad it is packaged up in boxes up in the rafters. We went inside to ask him to bring it out, he said that it takes too long and it’s late. I looked over at the clock, he was right, it was 8:24. We both decided to walk back out to the lawn again. This time it only took 5 minutes before our mother shouted from the door to come back inside. Which we reluctantly agreed to.

Elementary school shenanigans

In elementary school I had to be a part of a singing thing for music class. Before we were learning how to use recorders. Which is pretty much an easier flute with less specific notes but with some notes non the less. In fact I still have my recorder that I purchased myself back at my house. My mom loved that I had to do this. Everybody’s mom or dad loves to get photos or videos of their young child performing, and in this case, it was me. I went to Gisler elementary, a nice elementary school in my opinion. It had a decent sized bowl with a stage next to the cafeteria and the nurse’s office. All made out of concrete, with a cloth hanging over the very center of the area. One of the songs that we sang was “We will rock you.” I kind of remember me just standing at the top of the stage looking down upon everyone else’s parents and stuff filling the bowl. We all sang together, which I found slightly embarrassing. I don’t like singing for people. The time I was a part of the play, we were reenacting the American revolution. I played as Benjamin Franklin. I hated being in that play.

Big transitions

Going back to fifth grade summer, is one of the biggest changes in my life. Everyone including myself were going to a different school…middle school. A whole new big place with more people. I’m not particularly a fan of lots of people. Not to mention all of the confusion of having a new role in a place. It is kind of like starting a new job. Not knowing where things are, and what to when. What is acceptable or not, new people that you need to befriend. It all is a lot of information to get a hold of. The elementary school that I went to before going over to middle school did allow us to go on a tour of the campus before the school year ended, and summer started. The tour was nothing like being a school session for real. I remember getting lost on the first day of school because I was not used to having a class as a home room. It really confused me when the bell rang twice in ten minutes. After getting used to everything, Talbert is a great school. The best event that was held at Talbert was the weird dance thing. It was not actually a dance, more like very loud music and random food. It was still nice to hang out with my friends there, even though I am not a people person.