I was now in America, alone and mostly friendless. Aside from my two closest friends I had acquired from Ghana, I was alone, and that changed me. I knew I was not that same kid who left Ghana four years ago, for the last four years had been the most pivotal of my short life. I was not that same extrovert I once used to be, my love for the outdoors had subsided, and my default facial expression turned cold, I had changed, and whether it was for the better is undetermined. It was this summer that I would be treated to a trip to Ghana, one made to reminisce in the nostalgia though truly I reflected on what could have been. With every step, a memory aroused, and with every street, a feeling reawakened. On the first day I landed, I knew I had to see her, for all the time we spent together, and the fact she was a couple blocks away. Though I was scared, as I said, I was not the same, I was not the same kid who used to play with her on the playground, and that was painfully obvious. I was concerned, for the fact that it may have taken the lack of communication between each other, this change in character, and the year or so I had spent in an all-boys school to end our friendship for good, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I walked up to the same old gate that rested on the left side of the main entrance to be greeted to the frantic howls of her six-year-old shih tzu scraping against the metal gate till silence falls as it realizes who I am. Then coming to my unnecessary aid, her nanny chases after the dog as well, to find that it was silent and showing a lack of energy the dog usually displays. The nanny asks me to state my business here, and with my intentions stated, I am let in. I walk into the living room with skyrocketing levels of anxiety to find Kukua, sitting down, watching tv, so I walk over quietly, taking off my shoes. I sneak over to the couch and take a seat, and before she could react, I said, “so, what are you watching?” and she picked up where we left off four years ago.

Though we had both gone through our fair share of change, her being in the Tik Tok phase, it was vital for me to realize that I am that same kid that she would have fun with, and I still am.

Perhaps I had not strayed too far after all.