There's no Place like Home....

Always the same sky, people and boring life. As a seventeen year old boy, I wished everything would be different! I longed to be rescued from such an ordinary place. But everyday was just like the previous – plain and uninteresting. For years I’d waited for a change and, finally, it came true!

My father got a big promotion that involved moving countries. Even though I was ignorant about the place I’d be living in, I felt like the gates of Heaven had been open and I was about to enter.

A month later we moved to Los Angeles. Great! Every celebrity lives here! Maybe, I will be found by an agent and instantly become a star! I started imagining my life as an actor or a singer. Parties everyday, lots of girls, loads of money! Yeah, it couldn’t be better!

My first day at the new school was awful! No one talked to me and the cafeteria food was disgusting! All the kids were part of some group like the ones you see in movies. The school had this weird hierarchy, where the smart people were bullied by the jocks. And everytime I tried to smoothly talk to a pretty girl, she would automatically dump me!  I hated it!

My neighborhood wasn’t any better. No one would greet you or even look at you and sometimes I swear I could hear gun shots! Also, I never saw a celebrity and no agent contacted me. C’mon what’s that all about?!

At home I was always by myself. My father was always working and my only friend was the TV. American television consists on reality shows and they are disturbing. You can’t imagine what people can do to be on TV.

As days passed, I found myself thinking about my old country. How I longed to see that infinite blue sky, those smiling people and to live my so loved boring life! I missed my friends and the true me I left behind. My heart ached for it! I wanted and needed to get back! I hated that fat American food! I hated the coldness of the people! And, I was starting to hate my father.

Months went by and my hatred grew with it! One day as my father prepared to leave the house, I gathered up my courage and screamed at the top of my lungs, “I want to go back”. He looked at me and answered, “Me too”.

All along he had wanted to return home but because he thought I was happy he sacrificed himself.

So we returned to our old country. And I never felt happier to see that old sky, those old people and to live my old life.

There’s no place like home, don’t you agree?

Catarina Mestre