the winnebago of change

when i was ten years old i had a fairly traumatic life change. it changed my life in ways i cannot begin to fathom, and laid the groundwork for the person i was to become...

until i was ten and a half, i lived solely with my mother. my parents divorced when i was a year old, and both parents remarried within a couple years. my dad moved in one direction, my mom in another. i used to ride the greyhound bus over the hot plains of eastern colorado, stopping in small towns along the route, a lone 8 year old boy with his flip books to read and a quarter in his pocket to buy a snickers bar at the food stop. i remember little about those visits with my dad and his growing family, save for the arrival at and departure from the bus station...

the summer of my tenth year was different. my mom and step-dad rented a winnebago and our little family took a week-long tour of colorado. we visited the southwest part of the state (thinking telluride was a funny name for a town), spent a day and night at the sand dunes (waking up with eyes puffy and full of sand), spent some time with relatives in denver, and ultimately landed in lamar where i began my yearly two weeks with him...

a little history. before this fateful trip to my dad's house, i had worked myself into quite the little delinquent. both my mom and my step-dad worked full-time, and after school i developed a habit of going to local stores and helping myself to things that i wanted. it started with a candy bar here and there, but i gradually worked into bigger and more expensive items. even getting caught red-handed at the 7-11 and taken to the police station in the back of a cruiser didn't change me. i was on a downhill path and didn't know to use the brakes...

when my mom dropped me off at my dad's house and waved goodbye as the winnebago drove away, i had no idea that would be the last that i would ever live with her. shortly after i arrived at my dad's house, he and my step-mom sat me down and explained that i would be living with them. that i would be going to a new school and repeating the fifth grade (since i'd also let my grades fall over the past couple years). that i'd be the new big brother to five younger siblings. that the delinquency would stop and i would be an example for my family. that life was going to change...

that was an incredibly difficult thing for a ten year old to come to terms with. i wouldn't be seeing my mom, who was all i'd known for years and who was not to blame for the child i had become. i went from a family of four to a family of eight, from the oldest of two children to the oldest of six kids. i had to quickly learn discipline and make new friends and get to know a new family. it was a rough adjustment. and it was also the best thing that's ever happened to me...

as i grew older and moved from adolescence to teenager to adult, i grew to understand the importance of self-control and of discipline. i grew to appreciate the strict control that my parents held me in, to understand that their guiding hand was the only way i was going to become a better person. to become a person that they could be proud of, that i could be proud of...

now 34, i often think back to the child i was at ten. and i am incredibly thankful that i had help finding the right track. that i've had the support of parents and a family who lit the path to change. without them, i would have been a different person. and i happen to like the man that i've become...