Victoria Arciniega

Professor Reyes

English 100

2016 January 1

Long distance

                Growing up in the 90's was the best thing ever I actually spent time outside playing with my friends or neighbors. We had the best cartoons. I actually did my homework and I wanted to learn. I was nine years old and I already had a mindset of being the best in school. I wanted to be the best in class. I was a very smart and friendly girl. Mathematics was my favorite subject. I was always the honor student of the month. Until one day my life made a dramatic twist.

“I received a call today, “My mother explained with a depress look in her eyes. “It was one of your aunt from Mexico telling me that our grandmother is very ill and my mother cannot take care of your great grandmother on her own.”

I didn’t know how to react to the news because I never seen my great grandmother in person. I was sad because I knew that for elder people is harder to recover and because I knew she was my great grandmother. But I didn’t know how she looked or sounded like. I didn’t know if she would like me or how to treat an elder person. I could picture me walking towards her with all the shyness of the world to giving her a pleasant warm hug and calling her great grandmother for the first time. So beautiful. I was so excited that I was finally going to meet her, my cousins, and aunts. But what I did not know was the next.

“Mija, we need to move to Mexico until my grandmother gets better” my mother said.

I thought they were coming to our house not the other way around. I was happy in a way, but I didn’t want to leave my friends behind. I mean I’m use to moving from city to city, but this was a complete different country. I was freaking out. Questions that I didn’t have answer for came to my head. Do I know enough Spanish? Where are we going to sleep? When are we going to come back? Are we coming back soon? How do I contact my friends? Am I going to school? I was more stressed out because I didn’t know how I was going to contact my friends. We headed out the next morning.

“Don’t worry Victoria, you’re going to have a good time with your cousins” my mother said with a delight smile on her face.

Finally, we made it do my grandmother house. There was food and color everywhere, it felt like home. But there was still something missing and that was my friends, what a bummer. A couple months later my mother approached me with an exited face expression. She introduced me to a block of screen with a moving click thing and a bored with letters, numbers, and lots of other stuff that had no meaning to me.

“What is that?” I asked my mother confusingly.

“It’s the solution to your misery” my mother laughed.  

I had no idea what my mother meant by this, but I kept an open mind. A girl walked in with a shy look and introduced herself to me.

“Hi, my name is Gloria” she said “I’m teach you how to use the computer” she explained.

I had no idea that the thing I just seen was a computer.

“What is a computer” I asked concern.

She pointed at the piece of block my mother had just showed me. How was that thing going to help me in anything? She taught me how to turn the computer on and off, how to connect the internet to, and how to download apps. I was so mind blown of what that piece of block could do in a matter of seconds. After I had learned everything about a computer she helped me download the Facebook app. I made an account and started searching for my friends. Yay! I was so happy after months of being at my grandmother’s house I had an opportunity to communicate with my friends. Yes! I found my friends Jenifer, Brianna, Raina, Melissa, Janet, Jovany, and Jose. The whole squat was on Facebook I was glad I found them. They were surprised I knew about Facebook since it was like a new thing for everyone and after all I was in Mexico. Everything worked out perfectly for everyone. My great grandmother over passed her illness, I got to know my mother’s family, and I had a way to communicate with my buddies. From that moment on I never passes a day without connecting myself to Facebook or other apps. That tripped to Mexico really changed my life.