Texas and the City: The Journey Less Traveled

By Xlibris US

Flashing lights, continual energy, subway performers, and synthetic salesmen! Its New York City, baby, and Im going after it! Kisha set her journey to New York within a two-week window. She piled her car, opened her sunroof, gave away all other items, and hit the road. This was to be the journey of a lifetime. Only three years prior, Kisha listed living in New York on her bucket list, and now it is to come to pass. Too bad she didnt specify the city when writing this goal! Join her on this journey greater than the city itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499005271

Book preview

Texas and the City

The Journey Less Traveled

Kisha Simmons

Copyright © 2014 by Kisha Simmons.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014907165

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-0529-5

                Softcover        978-1-4990-0530-1

                eBook             978-1-4990-0527-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/16/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

602430

Contents

September 4, 2012

The Journey Continues

Welcome to Store 443

Autumn and Experiences

The Beauty of a Wood-Burning Fire

November 7

Press On!

NYC Tourist

Christmas Cometh

2013 What Has 2012 Taught Me?

New Year, New Beginnings, and New Bulls—t!

Hey, Family, Here I Come!

Next Best Thing

Those Moments

Marathon Minute!

Started from the Bottom, Now I’m Here

Seasons Change

Summer Accountability

Fall Back

September—More Than Leaves Falling

Universal Changes

Change Continued

Final Journey Home

Breathe and Sm:)e

December Flew

It’s a Wrap!

Acknowledgments

This is dedicated to those who live life fully and who find wisdom, encouragement, and strength that always lived inside them as they partake in life’s journey.

Flashing lights, continual energy, subway performers, and synthetic salesmen! It’s New York City, baby, and I’m going after it! "Concrete jungle where dreams are made of and there is nothing you can’t do! Yep, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’s Empire State of Mind," remixed from Liza Minnelli’s, became my theme song! I listened to it about twenty-seven times during my twenty-eight-hour drive over three days as I journeyed to New York. Car packed to its capacity, my sunroof open and music blaring as I tried containing my excitement of moving to a place I listed on my bucket list just three years prior! All this excitement of me moving to the big city, where I’ll frequent Broadway shows, see movies in the park, and create nothing less than a fabulous following of fashionistas and forward-thinking friends. This is what I dream of, and it’s now coming true… but… not really. This is my story I like to call Texas and the City, or so I thought. My journey as a Texas-born girl moving to what she thought would be the Bright Lights, Big City in pursuit of more than just transferring with her job, where she was promoted to run the largest volume-outlet store. My journey was to be one written in the books to remember. My journey was going to be where I really made it big. It would be where everybody would know my name, where people would want to get to know more about me. And my journey began on September 4 of 2012, and boy, was it an amazing ride—that still continues.

September 4, 2012

This is the day set forth for me to go on my journey—the journey of a lifetime… the journey led with inspiration, questioning, excitement, anxiety, and uncertainty! I’m leaving at 6:00 a.m. on my twenty-eight-hour drive to New York! I can’t even believe I just said that. And although I was set to leave at 6:00 a.m., I actually didn’t depart until around 9:00 a.m., thanks to me sleeping in! It was hard for me. My soul was smiling grandly while my body shivered with anxiety. The what ifs attempted entering my thoughts but were instantly overtaken by the you can do this thoughts, and eventually, the you can do this won the battle that lived within. I’m doing this drive alone! I’ve never really done this before. But so what, Kisha? I say to myself. There are a lot of things you’ve never done and will do if you continue to follow the bucket list you’ve written for yourself. So instead, I chose to look at it as a conversation starter and positive releaser. I guess when they ask When was the last time you did something for the first time? I can respond with this!

I’m driving cross-country on a road not taken, alone and in question. Nevertheless, I’m elated. My second mom stayed over the night before, assisting me in cleaning my condo before I departed and getting rid of what she considered unnecessary—items such as my ninety-seven pairs of shoes, which she said I will never wear and will more than likely buy more due to me moving to a fashion state such as New York. She also said in her loving yet condescending tone, You ain’t gonna have no damn space for ninety-seven pairs of shoes! Leave that shit here along with those plastic containers you have them in! I laughed loudly as I tried to bargain with her on why I needed them, even though I hadn’t worn most of them but once and some never at all.

This five-foot-five lady, thick in the hips and breasts, forever wearing her curly coiled wig, and with a personality like no other, is someone never to be forgotten or bargained with! She is what the Puerto Rican culture would call La Dona’, which is the female powerhouse that’s highly respected, in control, and running things. I remember being ten years old and how I would mimic her every move—the way she sashayed into the room and demanded attention without even speaking, her loud laugh and matter-of-fact tone, and her being always the woman in charge that everyone respected. Her daughter and I would play superstars where she would choose to be Whitney Houston and I never failed to choose to be Linda Steward, my second mom!

She’s a character you wanted to be! But every time I chose her, I remember that Shemica (her daughter) would quit the game, stating how I didn’t know how to play right because I was supposed to choose a superstar, and my rebuttal would always be "But your mom is a superstar! [Well, to me.]" Oh, how I love this woman. She drives me completely crazy, but I could never imagine my life without her. I call her my second mom because although she didn’t give birth to me, she’s been a mother figure that has shared unconditional love as if I were one of her own. She’s been what I needed at the times I needed it most. I thank God for her and all her craziness. And for those wondering, I call my granny mom, and my mom, my biological momma. It’s a bit complicated, interesting yet all serving a purpose, and it’s… a story for a different book!

Anyway, on September 3, my second mom helped me transport twelve boxes to FedEx, which she considered, and I quote her, Twelve boxes of a bunch of nothing, but she helped me nonetheless and shook her head while I paid the bill. Then on the morning of my journey, she was there to see me off, trying not to shed a tear while she hugged me and prayed over me quietly for traveling grace. She smiled, shared loving words of how proud she was of me, and said, Don’t look back, and remember, this move is way bigger than the job you are transferring with. How interesting. This is now the third time I’ve heard this and from three distinctly different people that have not conversed with one another. It has to be true, and I can only speculate what this journey will bring.

My Infiniti FX35 is filled literally beyond its capacity, and I feel as if I’m suffocating! I’m trying to breathe, but it’s not flowing smoothly. I’m sweating. I have all the windows down and the sunroof open, and it is not enough. Even my passenger seat is piled high. The claustrophobia in me can’t take it! So what do I do? I drive to the nearest Goodwill and dump almost everything off! This is too funny. I pull up through the drive-through area of the Goodwill in what seems as a panic. A guy comes out to assist me, and I’m just taking stuff out like a madwoman. I’m moving much faster than he is, and the startled facial expression of the assistant stops me in my tracks, only to laugh hysterically. I then apologize and tell him, I just need to get this stuff out of my car! He laughs along with me and says no worries. He says he is just confused on how fast I was moving while breathing so deeply. He asks me, Do you need a receipt? and oddly I say no! My response is more that I just need to move along on my journey. Now, when I look back at this situation, I laugh even more when I realize what I was dumping off were my sheets, pillows, comforters, all bed linens along with towels, some clothes, dishes, and everyday needs! Then when looking at what remained in my car, it was two boxes of nonsense, books, and a damn industrial steamer! What the heck was I going to do with that! This is funny beyond words, especially when I don’t realize it until a month later!

Nevertheless, I’m on the road again, and my first stop is Dallas, Texas. This is where I did a brief stop, only to give my very best friend and mentor a hug in the parking lot as he was finishing a store visit. It’s funny. I held back the tears when saying good-byes to my very best team ever at San Marcos store 471. I held back the tears when my second mom hugged me. I held back the tears when hugging and saying good-bye to my sister from another mother, Neely, but when I hugged Steve Arocha and he made jokes as he always did about my big hair, along with sharing some words of wisdom and encouragement, I drove away crying more than ever! Seeing him choke up while telling me how proud he was of me and that I will conquer anything I put my mind to still to this day bring tears to my eyes. I tried figuring out why he touched me so, and after many thoughts of analyzing it, I’ve come to the realization that he was a godsend. I was blessed with the mentorship and work relationship that turned into the best friendship anyone could ever receive. He was one of my biggest cheerleaders. He believed in me even when I didn’t. He encouraged me during the times I needed it most. He allowed me to be simply me and called me out if I were to ever try and be something else. He had a great way of developing, nurturing, and genuinely loving another person while never compromising his true self. This is what I admired about him most. Whew, mushy enough, Kisha?

Some of my peeps from the best team ever! I love this team!

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Steve and I.

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The Journey Continues

I depart Dallas, Texas, with my next stop being Memphis, Tennessee. It takes me a little less than seven hours to arrive there from Dallas. I did appropriate research the days prior to find out the hotels I would stay in on my journey and how I would break up the drive time of twenty-eight hours. So my plan was to first drive to Memphis, Tennessee, after a brief stop in Dallas and stay overnight. This was approximately ten hours total with my beginning point being Austin, Texas. I would then awaken and depart by 9:00 a.m. from Memphis to then head to Staunton, Virginia, which would take approximately eleven hours. I would stay in the historic Stonewall Jackson Hotel and then sleep in and not depart until twelve noon for my six-hour-and-thirty-minute drive concluding in Suffern,