Jereline S
UB Writing

When I was just two months old, my family moved into my grandparents' house. To most people that sounds strange, but it was an every day thing for my family. I was brought to a place named Lauoka. I don't remember much about my first few years. When I was five years old,I started to recognize the place I thought was the whole world at that time.

Lauoka was one block long with half paved roads and five buildings on each side. To most people it would be considered a dirt road or a crossroad. To me it was the road that had hundreds of falls and it was the road that I found my first love.

The smell of this place was like cotton candy and everytime I walked on this block from one side to the other, I felt like a child walking through a candy store. Those feelings were so strong that I never felt like that again. To this day I think those feelings could have moved the Himalayas. When the sun went down it was a view like no other. The colors were orange, yellow, and green all mixed together to make the sunset as beauiful as the sight of a mother with her new born child. The smell of cotton candy faded away when the sun went down and the only smell left was that of the creek.

There were only two street lights on the block, but the houses with their open doors lit the whole block. Those were open because every night people would come out and talk with their neighbor and others outside the street. It's a sight that can't be described. The only thing that can tell you is that it was like Thankgivings in the White House but with the simple things in life.

The place I described is paradise, but it is also my home town. Why did I leave this paradise? I left because there was a war in my country, a civil war, a war that I am not proud of; but war is war and I had a life to live. The main reason I left was because the neighborhood, once so perfect turned unperfect. It began to have conflicts based on race, sex and religion. In just a few months, my so-called paradise turned to hell. What happend was that the whole country was in a war and every one was killing everyone else; no one would trust anyone else. The worst thing was that how, after so many years people treated people differently because of the color of the skin, of race or the main reason- their culture and religion.

My family had things stolen from them by close friends and a few of my family members were beaten up and robbed right outside of my block. So all of us decided to come to America because we could not stand the war and because my mother thought I would get better educated in America. On February 14 1987, I had reached the United States. Cross-roads are roads that are made of dirt and Lauoka roads are the roads that I had my first experience of the real world; a hatred and love of people and of the precious thing called life. This is a place I will never forget because it is the only place I felt at home. It is the only place where I felt like I really belonged and last but not least, I will never forget this place beause it is the place where I learned about life's greatest moments and about the challenges I would be facing in my life.

Many people will have once in their lives a place where they will feel like I did in Lauoka. And when they do remember it will only come once in a life time. These moments should be treasured like gold and held on to it until the very last moment. After the moment is gone don't ever try to go back because you never can. My advice to anyone out there is treasure every moment of your life because it will be the only life you get.