Richardson-Day 1

Mariaha Richardson-Day

Severin

English 9

29 August 2019

Moving On

After hearing the news for the second time it had felt like my heart had been ripped out

and crushed right before my eyes. In all the years (which is not very many), this memory was

one that I could vividly recall. I had already moved once and I didn't think I could bear doing it

again but only a couple months after moving to California I was told that it was up to me to

choose if my family moved back to Oregon or to Arizona. But if you're reading this you

obviously know which way I went. But it took a lot of time and deliberation. To this day I still

think about if I made the right decision and on my worst days I wish I would have chosen to go

back to Oregon. But you can't go back in time, right?

It all started on March 30th, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. it was the very last day of my

second 2-day competitions. That morning was like every other comp morning we got up, Allison

drove us to Starbucks we all got a cinnamon cloud macchiato with an extra shot, did a little

shopping and went back to the hotel to start getting ready. As I was putting my hairpiece in my

mom started asking a bunch of questions about Arizona and if I had liked it last time I was there.

May I note that the last time I was in Arizona was for my grandpa's funeral so it was not exactly

a “cool place”. Although I thought the questions were weird I ignored it and focused on getting

ready for my comp.

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Later that day, when we were waiting to see what we had placed I started to think of what

I really could remember about Arizona. When I had thought about Arizona I thought of two

things my grandparents and the summer I had spent there when I was six. Of course, the

memories I have from when I was six are very hard to recall. After the comp had ended and we

had settled back into the hotel for the night my mom finally told me the news that we were going

to move again because “California is just not working.'' I was devastated. Although I was hoping

she was going to say we were moving back to Oregon a voice deep down was screaming “it's

never going to happen”. A week after she had told me this we flew down to Arizona to look at

what it was like and then after that, we had gone back to Oregon to visit our family and friends

that is when I was faced with an impossible decision. Stay with the people I have known since

first grade or go to a new school in a new state.

For me, this decision was too big to make on my own so I left it up to faith. I told my

mom to apply for an apartment in Arizona and if we get it we move if we don't we stay here. It

had been a week since she had put in the application and I was praying that we didn't get

accepted but at last, she had gotten a call saying we had been accepted. At first, it broke me

inside knowing that I had to leave all the people I had known and loved but I knew that it was

meant to be.

As we packed up my childhood home there were many tears. I tried to fight them but it

was inevitable. Pulling out of the driveway for the very last time tears running down my face

because deep down I knew that I was not going to be able to come back. But with all this, I knew

that it would make me a stronger person. That even if it is rough at the beginning it would
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eventually smooth out. That moving on to new bigger and better things was just a part of life.

That I was going to have to overcome moving on one day so why not now.