The trip; Prolog

"Yeah, but why Michigan?" my brother asked.

"The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is tied for first place on my list of grad schools with Iowa because it fully funds its students; if you teach the undergads they waive tuition, pay you 8-12k dollars a year with discounts on campus living, and Loo is there. The only cost would be non-resident out of state fees. If I become a resident and get in I could get my MFA with a positive money situation rather than a mountain of debt."

"Wow. Makes sense. As much as I hate to see you go, logically it seems like a solid choice. What if you don't get in?"

"The other schools out of state fees aren't very substantial, or are waived if you teach. If I get accepted back in Cali than I'll reclaim my residency--its apparently easy to do if you were born here, and your family lives here and stuff."

"Makes sense," he said. I could tell he didn't like the idea of me going, but knew it to be the right thing to do, the logical thing, regardless of how unintuitive it seemed. He is like that. In a few months he would move out himself to go to CSUN for mechanical engineering, so either way we would be moving away from one another.

That was my brother's reaction. My best friend's reaction was more of a

"No!"

"Yeah."

"Crap. Who will run with me everyday now?"

"Dunno," I said, than I explained it to him [see above]

"Well. Horse shit. Makes sense, and I cannot deny your logic, just hate to see you go. But wait! My AK-47 shows up Monday, when do you leave?"

"Wednesday-ish?"

"Damn bud! That's quick! You can't see my AK. I wanted you to shoot it. We can still play 360 over the interwebs though, right?"

"Hell yeah, bud. And we can shoot your AK monday night at the range."

"And sight your rifle."

"Yeah, that too."

"Sweet," he said. And we did. The AK was pretty flippin sweet I have to say. His first shot went right through Osama's face, between his eyes. I think I could write a post about the shooting experience, but it has nothing to do with the trip, so I wont.

My parents were both sad, my mother fell apart. It made it difficult to leave. I cried. She cried. 5 minutes went by before she said, "Go."

And I went.