My Past
My family was a very laid-back family, though some would say my parents were strict. But I am happy with how they raised us. My dad was very relaxed while my mom was the more strict parent. My mom didn’t want us listening to certain things such as rock, pop, or anything too upbeat. Instead, we grew up listening mostly to orchestras, instrumentals, and classic soundtracks like Indiana Jones. There were many things they didn’t want us doing, but one of the things they always encouraged us to do was explore. Exploring made some of my best memories. Jesse, Julie and I, along with my neighbors Chase and Austin would go out to an abandoned orange grove (which was surrounded by woods) where we would find old, abandoned buildings overgrown with vines. There were even big trash piles here and there, where teenagers would throw all their trash when partying. We would walk around the orange grove and surrounding woods just enjoying nature, exploring, looking for rabbits and birds and doing whatever we found interesting. One day, we went out there and played on a track the teenagers used for their bikes and four wheelers. As we were playing and having fun on the track, in the corner of my eye I saw a van across an open field of grass, driving down a road in the orange grove. When my brother Jesse saw it, he yelled “drop!”, urging us all to duck in the tall, overgrown grass. I felt a sense of urgency, I knew if whoever was in that van saw us, we would be in trouble. We knew it was the teenagers who went back there to party. Austin didn’t see the car and didn’t listen to us urging him to get down and hide. Instead he stood, wondering what we were talking about until the teens had seen us. He finally hid, but it was too late. The car stopped, turned, and started heading down the road, straight for us. Jesse quickly reacted, yelling “into the orange grove!”, and urging us to get moving. We took off, leaving the bike we came in with. The grove we were running through was perfect; it was way too thick and overgrown for a car to get through, but open enough for us to run through. We bolted through the orange grove, with a feeling of urgency and adventure. I was scared of being caught, but I loved this adventurous feeling. We finally made it to the large dirt road we had to cross to get into the woods, which leads through to our living area. There was just one problem; the teenagers that were after us had gone around the orange grove and were driving down the same road. We decided to take the chance of being seen in order to get to safety. We took off crossing the road, but my neighbor Chase tripped on some roots in the road, and the teens saw us. We got Chase up and bolted into the woods. A few seconds after we entered the woods, we heard the van doors open and slam shut, and we heard one of the guys who was after us yell “get back here!” We were sure they were after us. Luckily, we knew the woods we were in like we knew our own houses, so we knew the fastest way through. We were jumping over logs, ducking under vines, and dodging trees as we sprinted through those woods. We eventually got to my neighbor Austin’s house and we started yelling “Help! Help!”. Austin’s mom came out of the front door, and we knew we were safe. We explained what was going on and then we went over to my house, grabbed some airsoft guns for self-defense (just in case) and went back into the orange grove with my mom to get our bike. When we got to where our bike was, we saw the van coming toward us again. But this time, when they saw my mom in the road staring them down, they stopped, hit reverse and drove the other way. After that, we just grabbed our bike and went home. That was one of my favorite memories from my past. Even after that, we still played and explored in the orange grove often. Many years later, after Chase stopped hanging out with us as often, and Austin disappeared (most likely having moved away) we kept exploring, only this time we would explore other states. We would go to North Carolina, Wisconsin and Texas and we would explore everywhere we went. Many of the favorite memories I have, I made exploring with my family. I have a desire for adventure, to take to the open road and see where life takes me.
How I Got The Idea
Two years ago, I started planning trips I wanted to go on. While I was planning a two-week trip to Japan (because I am an anime fan), I was scrolling through Facebook and I came across something that caught my eye. It read “Nate Dam walks across America”. I stopped and thought for a moment, wondering “Is that really possible?”. So I clicked on the link and started reading everything and watching all of his videos. Two days later, I finished reading and watching everything I could find on Nate Dam. A trip to Japan started to seem less interesting to me, as I started seeing that multiple people had done this. They all had their different lists, but they all seemed to spend an average of around $5,000. They did it with a pretty cheap budget. I would go to sleep at night thinking about walking across America, I kept thinking to myself “If I am willing to spend $5,000 on a two-week trip to explore Japan, why don’t I spend $5,000 exploring America for an entire year?”. I carefully considered it for about a year, but I only seemed more and more sure that this was what I wanted to do. With the encouragement from my family, Aunt Cheri and my oldest brother Jason who was willing to help me along the way, I started planning my trip across America. A few months after I started planning my trip, I heard pastor Brock preaching in church. He said whatever you do, do unto the Lord. So I thought to myself, “How about I use this trip to help others and to bring God’s Word wherever He leads me?”. My brother Jason was at my house a couple days after that and I heard him talking to my dad. There was something specific he said that caught my interest, he said “There are more slaves today than there were through the entire slave trade in the 1600s whether they are being used for hard labor or sex”. That stayed in my heart ever since. One day, Jason was talking to me about my trip across America. He said he thought that I should look into fundraising for a good cause. We talked for a while about fundraising, what it is, what it does and how it works. I drove to his house one day to talk, and he gave me a lot of helpful ideas how to walk across America, and fundraise. I told him that I wanted to raise money to stop sex trafficking, so we started reading and talking about it together.