FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

Tears rolled down my face as I tried to smile. Prolonging the dreaded good-bye, I kept busy organizing the small stuff in her new home. Her home with out me. It was one of those moments I anticipated but would not accept the reality until the time finally came. I had never been good with good-byes. An hour later, my dad looked at me and I knew this time we were leaving. I had given her a hug without looking at her and we whispered I love you’s to each other. She was having a hard enough time leaving everything behind so I wanted to stay strong for her. I wanted to stay. Walking from that dorm room felt like I was saying good-bye to my very best friend. As I reached the car and we drove off I began to cry, trying hard not to let my dad see. I did not want to talk about it.

Through life, many people turn away but family is always there. When you are away from the ones that mean the most to you, it is then when you realize how much they mean to you. Just like the old saying goes, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. I found this saying to be true when my oldest and only sister moved away for the first time to go to college.

Losing one mom was hard enough but when I had to say goodbye to my second I thought I was going to die. On March 12, 1992 my mother passed away of acute leukemia and my older sister moved up in the family tree. She became my mother, my sister, and my best friend. When she left, it was hard to imagine life without her around. We seem to be the perfect age apart to completely understand each other. She is the person who keeps me going. She is my conscience and role model. She teaches me everyday to live and learn and always try my best. My friends and father all mean so much to me but whenever anything goes wrong my very first reaction is “What will Allison think? What would she say?”

In 1936, many say that 14 year-old Mary Stevenson wrote the poem