{"id":588,"date":"2016-11-09T14:43:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T19:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?p=588"},"modified":"2016-11-09T15:06:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T20:06:57","slug":"searching-for-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?attachment_id=591\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-591\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-591 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/gaffney-peach-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"gaffney-peach\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>I wrote the numbers down on a 3&#215;5 card that I carefully pinned to the visor of my car.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>90<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>84<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>91<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>287<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>78<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>81<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>77<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>85<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>385<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those were the roads I needed to take to reach my destination &#8211; going from Massachusetts to South Carolina for school. As I got behind the wheel of my &#8217;88 light blue Honda Civic Sedan, I checked the list again. \u00a0Then I fastened my seatbelt, turned on the ignition, and headed out the driveway and on to the Mass Turnpike to start my journey.<\/p>\n<p>I had taken this route many times &#8211; in my parents&#8217; car, with friends, by tour bus, but this time I was driving it on my own. \u00a0No cell phone, no GPS. No exit numbers. Just me, an index card, a back up road atlas, and my car.<\/p>\n<p>I knew how long it was through each state &#8211; Massachusetts to Connecticut to New York to Pennsylvania, and then 3 hours. A\u00a0quick jaunt through Maryland and West Virginia followed by 5 grueling hours through Virginia. \u00a0Then North Carolina, and finally South Carolina. \u00a0The Gaffney Peach was always the welcome sign that we were almost there.<\/p>\n<p>I now live by the GPS app on my phone (WAZE) and even when I&#8217;m just driving home &#8211; I still turn it on to help me avoid traffic jams and unforeseen road delays.<\/p>\n<p>Yet there I was, barely 20, driving myself almost 1000 miles with no clearer direction than searching\u00a0for the signs to tell me\u00a0where the roads led, and then choosing which way I wanted to go.<\/p>\n<p>This morning, I woke up and felt lost. \u00a0The road ahead for us is not clear, and many dangerous things lie ahead. With all my technology, there is no confirmed route that will ensure a safe outcome for any of us.<\/p>\n<p>I took the roads that I thought would lead me where I wanted to end up &#8211; a place that would provide safety to my friends, equality for all. \u00a0I woke up and found out &#8211; the orange glow was not a familiar landmark telling me we were in the home stretch. \u00a0Instead, I know we have some new routes to plot out, some new travel plans to make, and a long, long way to go.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still confident we&#8217;ll get there. \u00a0I&#8217;m just not sure when. And I hope my fellow travelers will be safe along the way.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote the numbers down on a 3&#215;5 card that I carefully pinned to the visor of my car. &nbsp; 90 84 91 287 78 81 77 85 385 Those were the roads I needed to take to reach my destination &#8211; going from Massachusetts to South Carolina for school. As I got behind the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[231,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-joey-lives","category-nanowrimo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2UnPK-9u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}