My family was always very different. Both of my parents were scientists who made very little money a year. We lived in a two bedroom apartment above a hardware store in a small town North of Bolder, Colorado. I loved both of my parents very much and knew they tried as hard as they could to support my brother and I. I knew they struggled at being perfect parents, but I never thought they would actually give up on us. It was March 23, a week after my birthday, when I realized my parents were never coming back. My brother, Jackson, and I lived in the house alone for about a week, until there was a knock on the door. He told me not to answer it, but to go out the back door and run. I knew why he was doing this, he wanted to protect me. I never knew what my parents had done to make them run away, but I had a pretty good idea. They had been working on a “project” for a couple of months, and once a week these government people would stop by and ask them where the money was. The night before they left there was a very loud knock on the door at around 7 pm. My dad got up to answer and I over heard the man in uniform screaming, “If we don't have the money by next week you will be arrested.”

I asked my mom what the man was talking about and she said not to worry that they had money, and that the man had made a mistake. One thing I do remember, and will always remember, is a quote that my dad would always say by Henry David Thoreau, Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. This has always stuck with me because all I want to do is follow my dreams, I just don't know where to start. 

I've really been missing my brother. I had absolutely no idea where Jackson was. I figured that if I waited at his favorite store in the mall maybe he would come by and we could go find somewhere to live and look for my parents. After about two weeks had passed I gave up on waiting and needed to go somewhere else where people wouldn’t recognize me. I had always dreamed of living in California on the beach. I decided that this was the perfect time to go there, but first I had to go back to my house one last time, just to make sure Jackson hadn’t gone back. I rode the bus to my street and passed the houses I used to pass everyday on my way home from school. I started crying, and thought to myself, “Why did this have to happen, where could my parents have gone?”

When I got to my house on the very end of the street, I opened up the old wooden gate and walked up the porch steps. There was a note on the door that said “Eviction Notice,” I tore it off and grabbed the key out of the plant, surprised it was still there. When I opened the door I called Jackson’s name and heard a door close in the back of the house. I ran as fast as I could through the hall way of rooms. When I opened the door to my parents room there was a man standing in the middle of the room where the bed used to be. When he turned around he said, “Where are your parents?” I had never been so scared in my life. I turned around and ran out of the house as fast as I could. Hearing him running after me made me think of any place I could go and hide. I took the short cut into the woods and hid behind a tree. I looked behind me and nobody was there. I fell to the ground and cried for what seemed like hours and then fell asleep. When I woke up I was so confused. I looked around and saw a squirrel right next to my head. I screamed and jumped up, scaring the squirrel away. I laughed a little and started to make my way out of the woods. This is when I started to make my journey to California. I didn’t know how I was going to get there with only the 200$ that I grabbed from my room before I left. I walked for probably two days straight on the railroad tracks. I would pay attention to what the trains said on them and finally saw one that said Nevada. Nevada was the state right next to California so I figured this was the best I was going to get. I quickly jumped on the back of the very slow moving train and made my way to one of the open cars. The days on the train went by slow. I would sleep and sneak into the kitchen late at night to steal any food I could get. Finally when the train had reached its destination I prayed to myself it was Nevada. I jumped off the storage car and made my way down to the station. I looked around for any evidence of where I was when I saw a brochure that said, Visit the Homes of hollywoods Biggest stars, my eyes lit up. I asked the man at the ticket booth how far away from the beach we were and he said only about four hours. I thought to myself I could easily hitch a ride there! I went to the highway and did only what I saw in movies. I stuck up my thumb and tried to look as nice as I could at the cars passing by. This was way harder than I thought. After a day passed with no luck I went back to the train station. I saw the ticket man and asked him if he knew of anyway I would be able to get to the beach. He told me no, but he could give me some money. I looked at him confused. He folded up a check and told me to put it in my purse and to run. I started off towards the highway. After a couple of hours of walking through the woods I found myself at The Promenade. I walk into Los Angeles’s huge mall and quickly became over whelmed. There was so much to buy. I soon realized I hadn’t even looked at the check! I pulled it out my bag and the number written on it was a number that almost made me faint. I took a second glance and it said 450 million dollars. I didn’t know how to feel about it. I was so confused, overwhelmed, puzzled, and in shock. Was this a joke? I quickly found my way to the nearest bank to see if this check was even real. The clerk told me it was indeed real and asked me for my account number. I quickly gave her my account number when she yelled, startling me, “Who are you!? Are you an actor?” I replied, “No, however I can be whoever you want me to be.”