Chapter I - Good Bye
First Half of 2006, Lima, Peru
First Half of 2006, Lima, Peru
There I was, my body frozen, but almost shaking. My mouth was hanging wide open; my eyes were looking at my dad with disdain, genuine pain in my eyes. He had just dropped the bomb. In six months time I would be boarding a plane, leaving my life behind.
I was supposed to be happy, my dad had gotten an important job at Galdous Economics, one of the most important worldwide economics enterprises, but I wasn’t. I was finally starting to get accepted at school. I had stopped being the almost stereotypical wannabe nerd, with no perfect grades and no social life. I was finally being talked to by girls. I had actually been invited to a party, but this “opportunity” was ripping it all away from me.
I was about to leave my country, Peru, to move to the United States of America, Greenwich, Connecticut to be exact. I remember my mom telling me how she used to live there as a kid, when Peru was in a middle of a political crisis. It sounded beautiful, but right now I didn’t feel like appreciating beautiful, I just felt confused, angered, and another mix of emotions a 14 year old can’t describe.
The next couple of months were a blur. I completely lost all emotions on life. Why did it matter, if I would leave this life behind as soon as 8th grade finished in June. People seemed nicer as my last months in Peru developed, but just as the semester started, it ended, and I saw myself standing in the 8th grade Moving On Ceremony, singing the school anthem, and getting called out as one of the eight students leaving.
It sucked.
As soon as I knew it, I was getting good bye hugs from girls whose names I only knew from classes, getting waved by guys who had never talked to me before. I felt like an alien at a school where I had lived for the past 11 years of my life (I attended the EC-3 program).
The only time I felt at home on my last day was on the soccer field. My last good bye to that sacred place where I had stayed countless hours dribbling a ball past imaginary defenders and shooting at goals protected by goalies who never existed. In my whole middle school life I never had the guts to try out for the team. I feared getting rejected, or even worse, getting accepted but messing up during a critical game. But the one thing I feared the most were the other players. All the starters were the “cool guys” of my grade, the guys who hooked up with all the girls, all the time.
Soccer was my only true passion, and I was moving to a country were soccer is not as important…
I arrived at Jorge Chavez International Airport the morning of July 4, a couple days after school finished. I had just eaten at my favorite restaurant, but it wasn’t as pleasant as it used to be. I felt like a ghost of myself as I walked down the long lines that would lead me to the airplane.
I sat in the small and uncomfortable seat, grabbed my headphones and let the music take me to a different level, where I could finally relax and forget about the whirlwind that my life had become during the previous year, until I heard the following phrase in a song:
“The end is never the end. A new challenge awaits. A test no man could be prepared for. A new hell he must conquer and destroy. A new level of growth he must confront himself. The machine in the ghost within. This is the journey of the man on the moon.” (Kid Cudi, Up, Up and Away)
So yeah, I am new to the site, but I read some of these reports before creating the account, and I think it will be cool to do this. This is my first report so I hope to improve as I finish. This will be on NCAA 11 for PS3, so enjoy.
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