Background

"For attractive lips, speak works of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone."

-Audrey Hepburn

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Washington D.C. - The Next Chapter

 It all began Memorial Day 2010...as we were frantically stuffing the remaining boxes etc. in every available space left in the car and moving van.  Packing finished, it was time for goodbye.  I don't know if it was because Aunt KLynn was so emotional and I can't help but cry when other people do, or if the reality of what I was about to do began to set it...either way...I found myself unable to hold back my sobs as I went down the line and said goodbye to my family.






 Although I have lived away from home for five years, this goodbye seemed different...I knew that I wasn't just saying goodbye to my family...but to a wonderful chapter of my life...a chapter that had been filled with trips home for the weekend to help mom with whatever event or project she would be working on (Women's Conf., home make-overs, canning, reunions etc.), family vacations, late night talks with mom and dad, pillow talk and being immature with Melissa, general conference...when all the family and friends come into town, birthdays, most holidays, weddings, and the many family gatherings and activities.

Let's be honest here...this is what was really going through my head...
WAIT...why am I moving to the next chapter???? I like this one!!!!  WHY did I ever say I wanted this???  I am so STUPID!!!  I don't even have a job...I will probably end up begging on the street...and if I have to spend that much time on the streets I am definitely going to get mugged and killed...I don't have a car...so I will get lost on the streets of D.C....probably at night...yep...I am going to get shot...FOR SURE....I have practically NO money...so when they mug me they will only get angry and THEN kill me...and I don't have ANY friends in D.C....NO ONE will notice if I am dead...and I will just lie there in the streets...dead and alone...
I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP!!!! 
WHY am I doing this again??? Is it too late to change my mind???

...whimper....whipmer....sniff....ahem...pulling myself together

Goodbyes having been said...it was time to leave.  There we were, three ladies stuffed in the cab of a 14 foot moving van with only two bucket seats...YES...I rode all the way across the country on a broken camping chair...now THAT is what I call a ROAD TRIP!!!!  It was definatley memorable...from the beautiful mountains (I can say that cause I had PLENTY of time to admire them...due to the fact that the truck could barely go 20 mph depending on the slope...one particular stretch we couldn't get over 10 mph...semi truckes were literally ZOOMING past...) to the beautiful green plains of Nebraska...and Iowa...and Missouri...and Indiana...(sick of the plains yet...me too...).  Finally in Ohio the plains turned into beautiful, densely wooded, rolling hills.  It only continued to get more and more beautiful the further east we traveled.

Finally...after four LONG days of fast food, endless road kill, swollen feet, hours of staring out the window, gas station bathrooms, a flat trailer tire, and sitting in a broken camp chair...we pulled into Virginia...my beautiful new home.  Suddenly the fear of being so far away from my family, the unknown, and getting shot vanished...in its place...a nervous excitement for the future...a future that lay completely in my hands...to make of it what I will...thus beginning a NEW chapter in the life of one Whitney Hunsaker...

No comments: