The Vacation

“The Dream” in the making:

The fog that had been clouding my vision was lifting and dealing with the pain was no longer an everyday chore. My life was becoming my own as I was growing into a new person. The new me realized I was living my life based on what other people thought it should be; so I started asking myself what it was that I wanted for me. It started with small things like a pair of shoes or a new dress and eventually branched out to bigger things such as a new car. I was slowly learning to make my life about me. I had never been on a real vacation, at least not one that I could remember, so I set my sights on a west coast get-a-way. I had always wanted to see the west coast as a child and could think of nothing better to give myself as one of the final steps in my healing process. In August of 2009, my grandmother and I boarded our plane Seattle bound. The first flight was short between Pensacola and Atlanta; it only lasted about an hour. We ended up missing our connection in Atlanta due to delays In Pensacola and had to be flown to Baltimore to catch the next flight to Seattle.  We landed in Baltimore around 2 a.m. and had to wait about 5 hours for our next flight. The airport was completely empty with only the noise of the loud speaker playing the security code warning. By the end of our wait we could both recite the warning word for word. It was not a fun five hour wait but the time did pass and eventually we got on our flight to Seattle. The flight was long and the seats were uncomfortable the way flights usually are. Landing in Seattle was a great feeling after a long 24 hours of being in airports. It was great until we realized that though we had made it to Seattle our bags had stayed in Atlanta. No big deal right? It’s not like I wanted to change out of the nasty clothes I had on. We were on a schedule though and it had been delayed enough so we left and the airline had to send the bags to our hotel at their own expense. Relief was not the only thing I felt once we finally got out of the airport and on our way to the Olympic Peninsula; I felt home. Home is a rare feeling for me and even though I love the town I was raised in I am not sure it has ever felt like home. I have always had a hard time feeling like I was where I belonged. But as we were driving through the hills I felt it. Despite the sleep deprivation, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be, right when I was supposed to be there. The feeling only grew as I fell in love with Lake Crescent, the Pacific Ocean, the mountains and the rainforest. The vacation was able to give me a real life safety zone. I was able to put away any harmful memories and make all new ones. Washington was everything I needed; the last puzzle piece of the new me falling into place. A vision of the freedom I had found and a symbol of the new beginning I deserved…