"Take my advice," she says sitting in the kitchen one morning. "Watch who your friends with. As the saying goes, 'tell me who your friends with and I'll tell you who you are.'" I knew what she meant. She's been teaching me these sayings for years.
As usual, I push what Mother said to the back of my mind. Personally, I like to find things out for myself. What if things go better for me even if they didn't for her? Or if everything backfires, then lesson learned. But deep down, I always wondered whether she was actually right. She would tell me stories of her past as lessons to not make the same mistake.
And that's how my mother will always be: well-mannered, hardworking, and strict. Throughout her life, it was just her against the world. She had left her family to live with my father in a small, quiet town. While he worked, she stayed home taking care of my brother, George, and me. Father would return every night, and that was one of the best parts of the day.
I've looked up to him ever since I was born. His job in the sales department fascinated me. I tagged along every chance I could just to work with him. His coworkers pretty much became family to me. Everyone knew and respected Father and me. I learned all kinds of things and gained skills for the job, with Father promising me a position working with him. I was ecstatic to know that one day I would be just like him.
I did have other dreams than just working in sales. At first, I wanted to be a doctor to help cure Mother's illnesses. Then I saw what doctors had to do, and my fear of blood arose. That made me rethink my dream career. Then, becoming a race car driver excited me. I loved cars going fast, and Father would do just that whenever we went out. But Mother said to think more realistically because I wouldn't make it there, so I had to rethink again.
Once I started school, I decided to not worry about careers yet. I wasn't the brightest kid there, nor the most social either. It wasn't until first grade when I began to pick things up more. That year, we were finally old enough to pick out our own books to read by ourselves. That was the first thing I actually enjoyed while at school.
I began to read more and more books, learning about whole new worlds and universes that were far beyond my imagination at the time. The way the words were written so beautifully gave my life a whole new point of view. And that's when it hit me: why not become a writer? I wanted to express myself and create worlds just as all these authors did for me. Not only that, but books were my form of escapism.
My childhood wasn't all that bad, so to say I needed a form of escape is a little dramatic. However, it was pretty lonely. Lonely, yet quite simple. The simplicity of it all is what made me cherish my childhood. I had time to watch cartoons, play with toys, create crafts: the normal things a kid grows up doing. I got to see Father often, and Mother would take us to the playground almost every day. I like to think George and I lived a pretty great childhood.
The only thing that wasn't so good was the moments George and I shared with one another. Mother would always say we loved each other when we were toddlers, but at some point, we had disagreements and fights over the smallest things. We were like a cat and dog: one minute at each other's throats and at the other getting along. He was pretty much the only kid who could play with me.
I didn't have many friends for the first couple of school years. I was always the weird kid that no one wanted to befriend. I also never understood social cues, which added to the situation. I wanted to play with a girl my age to do girly things with. I begged Mother for a sister, and that's when my sister, Luna, came into our lives. Unfortunately for me, things didn't turn out the way I thought when I realized that she would never be old enough to do anything with me.
The simple life the five of us had took a turn after Father received a better job opportunity in a slightly larger city. We packed our bags and moved that same summer, which was before I started second grade. This was finally my chance to make friends in a whole new place. So here I am at Lakeland Elementary School, where I'm about to meet my first friends.
