Dominique Jackson: September 2006

I pain as I hold back the tears of.. Sadness, happiness, familiarity, a past that is gone but not forgotten.

Just seeing the city and space needle from I-5 reminds me of all the good times I had in this city, how much I love it and am thankful for everything it taught me and how sad I was when I had to go (and am still gone..new life now, new life then, new home).

I see the new safeco field and marvel at how cosmopolitan and big this city is even though it is so far away from the other U.S. hubs. The graffiti on the sides of the buildings create a connection between where I am now (the birth place of hip hop) to my past a city where I originally feel in love with music and performing as a little girl - in our 2 bedroom apartment - my mother and I listening to my cousin Janet Jackson's cassette tapes, making up dance routines for school.

Then, growing up and learning about sports (loved the Mariners and Sonics back then), competitons, fashion, haters, and most importantly "The Game".

I look to my right and I see the numer "41" bus that normally wouldn't mean anything to me today but upon seeing the words "to northgate, lake city" I am reminded that that was the bus I took from out apt. to downtown seattle to hang out.

We were all younguns, coming from single family homes (ALL of us) and we were curious. We would "hangout" looking at clothes, boys, playing games and doing other things we had no business doing BUT we all had something missing and together we filled that void for eachother.

I wasn't sure how I would feel coming here and quite honestly I didn't really think about it. Besides being too busy to the point of I was still packing the morning of my departure before I had to go to work first, then get my shoes shined real fast, getting cash, having last mintue lunch with a friend and then running to port authority to take a bus to Newark which I have never flown out of as of then.

Even on the plane I didn't think about what it would be like or how I would feel when I arrived. I didn't think I was making excuses or dodging the truth because I was genuinely busy but deep down I kind of was cautious because I knew that there was a possibility that some sentimental ish might go down.

I slept on the plane which was amazing and made me not hate the long flight after all (reserved sleep time, yay), and watched x-men w/o the sound because I didn't want to pay for the headphones : p. Watching w/o sound was good, I actually watched the actors and their performances instead of getting caught up in the sound effects.

We landed... I retrieved my suitcase and waited outside to get picked up. Then they rolled up. My little brother EZ is now BIG....almost HUGE at age 14 he is about 6'2". After hopping into the car to head home they had news to tell me "LJ (my other little brother) just got arrested". I thought "Oh nice"... WELCOME to Seattle!!

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Mount Rainier