Two Events That Have Shaped My Life

Two events that have shaped my life today have been two different ones. From moving from the Hawaiian Islands to the mainland living in a landlocked state that was completely different the island surrounded by water. From the sandy beaches of Maui, to the desert heat of Las Vegas, Nevada. To the loss of my very best friend whom I grew up with. The girl who helped me to see that I had more confidence than I had believed I had. Who would make me stay up later with her because she didn't want to sleep and wanted to talk about life. These two are different in contrast, but to me, they both hold a place in shaping my life.

I was seven years old at the time my parents told me we were leaving Maui and moving to the mainland. At first, I resented the idea of leaving the island. Sure, traveling to the mainland was fun, I had done it plenty of times before. But that was to visit my grandparents in Michigan, but we always came back to the island. But to move there, to move to a place that I had only been once, it horrified me. There was so much to do on the island. There was the shopping, the volcano, whale watching, swimming with sharks. That's just to name a few. Hawaii was a paradise.
My parents told me that it was going to be a great new experience and a chance at a new chapter. Of course having no idea what las vegas was like, I turned to my trusty friend, Google. I had searched all I could about it. It was a landlocked state which meant, there was no ocean. My heart felt a bit heavy at that. How does one go from looking at the ocean every day to a desert surrounded by