So today is a pretty special day for me, today 15 years ago I arrived in a land that would change and shape my life in ways I had no idea, and I still am seeing the benefits from that huge jump across the Atlantic Ocean. I remember a lot about Ireland, I remember the day my parents told my sister and I that we would be moving to America. It was at the dinner table about 6 months before we actually left. I remember thinking “but I finally got a girlfriend across the street, and now I have to leave?” That didn’t last long anyway. I remember things moving really fast between then and Sept 22nd. I remember all our toys being sold at the local market. All my original Star Wars items (I had a huge collection). I also remember my new bike being sold. I saved 120 pounds ($200) I sold TV Guides each week, I got 33 pence for each one I sold. I saved for a year (that’s a lot of money for a 12 year old). I left the 120 for Santa Clause the previous December so he could give me the bike I wanted. (Have you ever heard of paying Santa for a present?) Anyway, I remember the last night in our house, I said good by to my best friend Paul on the front door step, we shook hands, it seemed so grown up when I think about it now. I remember driving out of the neighborhood and saying goodbye to things like “the green” which was a field I played in.

My very last memory of Ireland that day was taking off in the plane down the runway, saying goodbye to my grandmother was really hard. As the plane was lifting off the runway, my mother yelled “look out the window!!” there in the distance I could see my grandmother and her little Ford Escort (puddle jumper she called it) sitting in a field off an old dirt road in the pouring rain waving at our plane. She could not see us in the windows, but she had waited hours in a field of muck just to see us take off at the end of the runway. Yup that pretty much did it for me. The rest of the flight was a blur.

We arrived in Atlanta airport with our 5 suitcases, which was everything we owned at that point. It was late at night, we were then taken to Warner Robins. I woke up that morning and looked out the window of the house we were staying in. My 1st thoughts of America were “its really sunny and it is really brown outside” (the leaves had changed already). The house I stayed in for a month is actually no more then 2 miles down the road from where I live now.

I started school a few days later at Tabor Middle School, I have lots of stories of those few days, the one I will share now is, I remember everyone that morning standing to say The Pledge of Allegiance, I had no idea what was going on. The teacher looked and saw how confused I was, she had the student next to me write it down so I could follow along each morning, I wish I still had that piece of paper.

Ok well that’s my story.