When asked where I'd want to go and what I'd want to do after graduation, there was a map that came to mind. Most of the Continental US appeared as a dull brown with some yellow. Only the Hawaiian islands stuck out as a mix of light green and vibrant viridian. My mom liked the answer of me wanting to return to Hawaii, but that didn't change that I would need to start preparing to go over to a now distant friend's house.

Neither of us had talked to the other in more than a few years, but both have stopped doing anything other using Discord excessively unless we happened to be required to perform some unavoidable task like college or work. I was scrambling back and forth at my mom's sudden orders to pack. Water, phone chargers, even a change of clothes; I didn't know how long I was going to stay over there for. It was either early in the morning or late at night, either way it was distinctly dark out.

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My friend's own mom was the one driving their minivan, letting me know that this wasn't solely planned out by my mom, but a collaboration from both of ours. The lights on their car flickered, cueing me to assemble my items with even more haste.