10:07 p.m. | 2005-11-07 King Of The Road. That was my dad. He liked driving. He liked driving fast. He liked driving boats, cars and motorcycles. He would�ve loved piloting a plane. Thankfully, he never did since he wasn�t trained. He liked moving about. Or, rather, he didn�t like settling. He grew up in a small town; lived there from babyhood to adulthood (18), but he was always itching to get away, but not so much to leave. His hometown left an indelible mark upon him. Of course, he left as soon as he hit adulthood and never again lived in his hometown. That restlessness is one legacy that he passed down to each of his children. Somehow, we all live in our spaces temporarily while at the same time establishing roots. It�s a delicate balance. One that�s much more comfortable as an adult. As a child? Moving all the time? Not fun. All our belongings were chronically thrown away, our pets were turned over to others and suddenly, we were facing new schools and new friends. Not to mention new cultures. Ironically, DearsestSister and I were always self conscious about our accents and spent hours trying to eradicate them before we moved� to places where there was no discernable difference. Usually, anyway. I still have an accent when I�m tired. We weren�t running from the law or anything exciting like that. Just that my Dad�s job enabled him to move from state to state right before it allowed him to move to another country. (He was running from life as was my mother, we just got drug along.) Thank goodness my parents taught me social skills. I was a shy kid but learned early on to make my presence known. Every place me moved (small towns) was cliquish, so to speak. If I�d have kept my mouth shut, I�d have spent half my life without ever being acknowledged, much less having any friends. It�s not easy to break into a clique though. At least when you�re young. (There are no such things as �cliques� when you�re an adult; if you feel that there are, the problem might be with you. Step out of teenage thinking.) But, I didn�t let that stop me because, well, people are people. If you make an effort to connect with someone, they�re usually powerless to stop you. Knowing that, from moving, I broke into every single clique in every single school I went to. However, I�m not cliquish, so I didn�t hang out with any of them on a regular basis. Plus, I knew I�d be moving so I made the most of it and hung out with people that meant something to me. I�m thankful that I got to meet some of the coolest people on earth. I had the chance to learn about different lifestyles and to enjoy different family dynamics. Most of all, I learned that people are the same where ever you go. They front differently, of course, but they�re the same inside. Well, and they�re a lot more like you than you�d ever think. Frankly, I loved the road trips with my Dad at the helm. He was always the happiest when he was traveling. He taught me to look forward to change. And, he taught us all to sing. He was gifted that way. your thoughts? seed flower