Many Chance Summer

Just the Beginning

•Prologue•
I honestly still can't believe my parents, of all parents, let me go. Like, what the fuck? It's not that I'm some delinquent child or that I have no future. It's my mom, basically. She's strict and lays done the rule. She and my dad are Catholic, and so am I, and sometimes they can be really traditional. But I like the stiff hand they lay upon my sister and I...sometimes. Because of the way they've brought me up, I'm going to make it in life and be a better person. I'll get through life on my own, I'll be independent instead like of some people who don't even know how to cook so they waste their money on fast food. Not judging, just saying.

     But it can be hard to be their child sometimes. I don't get to do some of the things other kids can.

Anyway, they've restricted me and sheltered me and now I get to be free for the first time. I get to get to finally know myself and discover who I am as a person. I've had high expectations on my shoulders my whole life and usually I can handle it but sometimes I want to just get away. Finally, I can do that. And with my friends, too. Can my life getting any better?

When Erick, Six, Kendra, and I entertained the idea of this trip last year at the beginning of the academic school year, I instantly felt a pall of disappointment wash over me. My parents would never let me go, knowing that there's be no adults whatsoever. The closest thing to an adult we could bring along is my cousin Caressa, my dad's niece, from South Africa. But she's only a year older than most of us. So she barely counts.

Despite my precious knowledge of my utter and inevitable doom, I asked my parent's anyway and they actually thought it'd be good idea. They said I deserve to go out with my friends and see how the real world is a little. Wow. They said I'm an adult now, and I should be making "adult decisions". Since I turned eighteen, though, I have noticed them giving me some leeway. They'd never accept I go to parties with drugs and alcohol, but I manage to go to them anyway.

Ten months, a whole lot of planning, working, saving, and anticipation later...my friends and my cousin, Caressa, and I were finally on our way to the best summer of our lives. I knew, just had a feeling, that it'd be just that.

As we drove away, I didn't look back at my parents or my house or even the mail box outside that housed my college acceptance letters in December. I didn't want to. From then on, I was only looking ahead, forward, towards my many chance summer.