The blazing hot sun rested on my neck. The wind blew softly through my hair. Where was I? I was dead center of the Copper River on a raft with five or six other people. My feet rested on the bowline that protects the water from coming into the raft. The kids and the two adults sang songs and shared stories about themselves. I looked around at the scenery, but to me everything was familiar because I spend every summer on this river. Why do I spend time on this river?
    One reason is because of my dad, Phil, worked there, and I helped him with his job cleaning fish buckets. We also move people’s fish from the boats to the cleaning table. My uncle Roger filleted the fish. Mark and Sam transported people to the good dip netting places. Sam, my uncle, gave my family and I rides on his boat every year. The next reason is the fantastic view of everything that takes me far away from my past. The river takes the bad things I have seen and burns them away from my memories, and also the river sewed my scars shut. The wind blew away the nightmares of the past and the smell put me right back to the good memories I hold close. These days on the river were peaceful and the waves weren’t that big, but that was only the first few days. On the seventh day, we weren’t prepared for what was going to happen next.
     Instead of putting my boots on that were already wet from the water in the raft, I put my only dry shoes on and was very careful to not get my shoes wet. Everyone else had at least dry shirts or pants on. I looked around to see the beautiful trees and also the gorgeous eagles. I had noticed the river was getting more turbulent and soon we had to work as a team to fight the big waves. People say when you’re in danger and you’re life is on the line everything goes fast, but for me it went slow. I wasn't showing any fear, but my heart was going fast. I held my paddle in the river. Then everyone on our raft saw what was in front of us. It was a big rock. Next thing we knew we were going under the water and then we all were drenched. We fought the river and eventually we made it through the rough waves. Then I saw something that wasn’t familiar. The glacier was right in front of us. The water was ice cold and the visitors that popped out from the water looked at us with their brown eyes. They were seals. I was shocked, and we were right in the middle of the most peaceful place I had ever seen.

_            There were two paths in front of me, and I wandered off onto my own path. We all have paths to take, but do we ever travel our own? My past will never change; half of me is happy because I’m proud of who I am. The other half is lost in memories that I hold close. Memories like my older sister, Deedee, singing to me as I dozed off to sleep to her voice. Her voice was like angels singing. Now it's just memories that are slowly fading. I can't,and I won't, forget the bad memories, but I try to remember the good fortune  that I had, like the day I was adopted, and meeting Audrey.

The bad remarks people told me bleed though my thoughts. People hated that I dreamed of a family. They told me I wouldn't be adopted. They would tell me,“Don't dream” and “no one wants people like you.” They were wrong! People like me have a story to tell, and dreams to fill. It's just that people like me don't move forward. We always look at what people say. We don't trust a lot of people, or we just trust ourselves. People like me give up on what we love. When we hit the bottom and can't get up we think no one is there, so we give up. But living around people like my dad, Phil, makes me realize he would do anything to get me back up, and I know my mom would do the same. My whole adopted family would help me if I hit the bottom and was lost. I know my super best friend Audrey would be there to help as well. My path is to be myself, dream and write downs the things I have seen. The cruel man that gave me life also gave me a story to tell.