White as Snow | Paul Lahote

INTRO + CHAPTER 1

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PART I

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Imagine having to uproot your whole life every couple of years because your parents are bored and wanna see other states. Unfortunately for Sarah Kaniehtiio, that's been her life ever since she could imagine. Her parents loved spontaneity and traveling, well, across the country at least. 

For as long as Sarah could remember, she'd never lived anywhere for, maybe, more than two years or so. Sometimes even less. But she'd never complained, because she'd gotten used to it. After her nana passed away in 2000, the moving became a lot more frequent.

Sarah's dad, Charlie, is a freelance architect. Meaning, he'd never get jobs that were permanent. All of his assignments were always temporary, and because of this, the whole family would have to shift bases as soon as he'd finish a job. Sarah's mom, Aisha, is a social worker, who works with the government and loves helping others and taking care of everyone. 

Because she works a government job, she never signs contracts longer than a year at most, knowing Charlie's random schedule. And she was always fine with that. As long as he'd give her a week long heads up, so that she'd have time to pack, find a new home, and rent out a truck and whatever else they'd need to move.

By the time Sarah was 11, she knew not to rely on silly concepts like making friends and having a social life, since she'd never stay in one place long enough to establish those kinds of connections. But she was fine with this. Because of their constant moving around, Sarah developed a very strong relationship with her parents. She'd tell them everything that would go on in her life, and them, theirs. They never kept secrets from each other, and would always share stories about their day at the dinner table.

Sarah loved living the nomadic lifestyle. She loved the excitement she'd feel when it was time to pack, or look for hotels in whatever town they were moving to, where they could stay while looking for their next "home". Sarah loved navigating alongside her dad as he drove through the night, while Aish slept deeply in the back seat, next to the luggage and snacks. Sarah had seen nearly all of the states, except for maybe Washington. But that changed.

In 2005, Charlie found a job in Tacoma, Washington.

Tacoma is a city that is considered on the larger side, for Washington at least, mainly because of its population. But for Sarah, who'd been accustomed to living in larger cities, Tacoma wasn't much but a small town, the kind you'd see in those cheesy rom-coms, where the lead characters grow up down the street from each other, and become best friends until the guy realizes that he has feelings for the girl, and they lived happily ever after, blah blah blah. Sarah was confused as to why her dad would choose to move to such a small town, so she decided to do some research before they moved.

After spending what felt like days, (but was actually only a few hours), googling about Tacoma and her new school, Sarah finally understood why her dad chose Tacoma of all places to move.

It turns out that the Aboriginal community in Tacoma was quite large.

Sarah's dad was a member of the Quileute tribe of La Push, Washington. And had always wanted to be closer to his roots, but never got the chance to go back. Until he got a job offer in Tacoma. Tacoma was the closest to La Push, and had a huge Aboriginal community. Which would give him a chance to back in touch with his roots, and Sarah a chance to finally explore her dad's spirituality.