Its Just Me
When I was little I lived the life of a princess. I got what I wanted when I asked for it. I had all the toys any little girl could dream of. And the best thing was my house. It was a two-story home with four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. It had a great yard where I could play Pocahontas and run in the sprinklers all day long. But all of that changed about six years ago when I was forced to grow up.
My 14-year-old cousin Kelly came to live with us. She was, shall we say a “troubled child.” She taught me the ways of the hard life; basically, I learned what not to do from her bad examples. Around the time that she came, my dad bought a new company. My parents had pored their savings into the company, and with what my mom was making at her job, and the way that the economy and the business records of the company looked, it should have been a great investment. But then my mom lost her job and the “Dot Com” bubble burst and Arthur Andersen closed its doors. My mother is a CPA and there were tons of them floating around so she could not find work. And because of the “Dot Com” bubble bursting, no one had any money to spend on their boats. So Dad’s business was not doing as well as expected, Mom had no work, and I had an incredibly rebellious teenaged cousin soaking everything else. I was in the sixth grade and everything was terrible.
The year passed by slowly with my grandmother paying the mortgage on the house and my dad feeling more and more like a failure because he could not pay his bills or provide for his family. And then my cousin left. It was sad because she was the only sister I had ever known but she missed her family and went home. I thought everything would go back to normal now that we did not have her crazy force of energy in the house any more, but to my dismay it did not. Kelly was gone, but that was not enough to make a difference when it came to paying off the mortgage. My mom was in a rut because she felt as though she was worthless because no one would hire her. So there was no motivation for her to get a job.
One night while my parents were talking my dad came up with a suggestion to sell the house and move onto a boat. My mom agreed that it would be a good idea and she seemed enthusiastic about the suggestion. My dad let it go for a little while and then suggested it again a month later and she agreed. They made the choice to move onto a boat, sell the house and then hopefully that would solve our money issues for the time being.
When I heard of this idea I thought I was a joke. They would never sell my house! Through the past year it was the only thing that I could really count on to be there. It held all of my childhood memories - all of the parties and sleepovers, even the tears and the fights. But I was willing to keep all the bad memories just to keep my house.
Nonetheless, we were moving. We looked at a several boats and finally decided that a 50-ft Gulfstar sailboat was the right boat for us. I hated the idea. If I had to give up my house I wanted a powerboat - something roomier. But no, they hoped to take the boat to the Caribbean when they retire, so I had to suffer because they are going to sail the boat to a foreign land without me. So, in the end, we moved three people and two dogs onto a sailboat.
I realize that this all may sound incredibly selfish. They were doing this to make it so we could survive, but at the time I did not see it that way. It took me some time to realize how this decision was made with my best interests in mind. They could have sold everything and moved to my grandmother’s house and made a life for us there. They decided to stay here in Alameda so I could keep my friends here and so I could have the advantages of better schools.
The boat has taught me more then I could even imagine. I learned how to live with only the essentials, to appreciate everything I have, and that family and friends are the most important things one could wish to have. I have learned how to earn money when I need it, how to prioritize, how to be resilient in hard circumstances, how to stay focused and determined to achieve a goal.