UNTITLED Erica Williams 8th Grade • Whitney Young Academic Center
I knew I was always a stick out. I just didn’t know I was this much of one. My parents recently dragged me out to Nashville, Tennessee. I don’t blame them though. I would never blame them for anything. I have the best family in the world. They were always by my side. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. But this was definitely not their best move. It just had to be the summer right before my eighth grade year. We packed our bags and took the 24 hour drive from Salt Lake City, Utah to our new home in Nashville, Tennessee. I didn’t think much of it the first third of the drive. I could always go back and see my one and only friend, Vanessa. I had just gotten her and I wasn’t ready to let her go. But as the hours passed in the stuffy car and tiny motel rooms, my hope went down. And when we finally got to our new downtown house it finally hit me. I wasn’t just right around the corner from Vanessa anymore. It wasn’t just a quick walk and then I would hear her voice. No. It was a whole 24 hour drive. Twenty four hours of cheap fast food, tiny public restrooms, and the smell of burning gas. I was barely going to see her anymore, was I ever going to see her again? So here I am on Willow Creek Road in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville, Tennessee. Not Salt Lake City, Utah, but Nashville Tennessee. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. I was a friendless outcast stuck in Nashville, Tennessee.
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