Have you ever tried to get a last minute passport? Well, let me tell you something, it is hard work. My family and I traveled all the way from New York City all the way to New Haven, Connecticut. It may have been a day lost to the cold weather outside, but what I could say is I learned something I never would have learned if this trip would’ve never happened. We were walking to the passport place in Connecticut and it had snowed ten inches overnight. My mom and my sister were leaving to India the next day and they had found out two days ago that my sister’s passport was going to expire while she was still going to be in India. It was cold outside that my coat was not warm even to protect me from the cold barrier that rested in Connecticut. I wore my rain boots and somehow I had the feeling it was going to be the last day as I could feel my toes were frozen and I might have gotten frostbite. Oh, the horrors I made myself consider. I could feel the icy water entering the soles of my rain boots and spreading a chill in my feet that caused my legs to start feeling extremely cold and somewhat numb.

The streets were covered with a layer of snowy ice that was forming and every person walking upon was sliding and carefully holding on to one another. I was holding on to my brother and my sister was holding on to me. Behind was my father just strolling along like we were the idiots, walking hand in hand. My mom walked near him struggling at times because her shoes kept making her slip. I had told her not to wear those boots because they weren’t too good to walk in, especially when the streets are icy. I peeked back and saw my mother struggled to walk across the icy surface. She was holding on to the fences of the houses as a use of support. As I turned back around to face the way I was walking, the chilly wind slapped me across my face and caused my nose to start become runny and my face was cold and red.

"Ahh," yelled my mom out loud and we all turned around only to witness my mom had fell to the ground and was lying down in the icy snow. I turned around only to notice my mom's coat and scarf were covered in snow like when bakers put confectioner's sugar upon the baked goods they bake. My father ran along within my sister. It was obvious for my sister to run to help my mom, not that my brother and I didn't go help her up.

My sister is known as my mom's favorite, as she calls herself, but we all know mothers love all their children "equally." But my sister is known as the "baby" of the house, she might be three minutes younger than me but she is my mom’s pet, she will report anything you tell her to my mom.

Anyway, my sister turned back and ran and tried helping my mom up, but she also slipped and fell. My dad looked at my mom and helped her up carefully making sure he didn't slip on ice and she didn't either. She got up but as she was rising from the ground she looked straight and so,eating looked different. Her face was red. She looked as if she felt embarrassed, I wanted to go to her and tell her everyone falls down and it's nothing to be embarrassed about, but it looked she wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, anytime soon. My dad worried and walked by her side to make sure she didn't fall again.

My mom was sad, it was noticeable. Her face was down and so was her spirit. She wasn't even laughing at my jokes, which are always funny, in my opinion. That opinion differs amongst every family member. They think I'm really bad at telling jokes because I always explain my jokes. My dad took my mom outside the passport place telling my siblings and I to stay put and spat and in line. Being the way we are, all of us agreed politely and we secretly listened to our parents conversation peeking from behind the door. We noticed my father was having a hard time talking to my mother, he just didn't know what to say and how to start off their conversation.

"Do you miss your parents?" He asked and she slowly looked up to his face as if he had read her mind and she nodded slowly. He looked at her with a frown upon his face. He opened his arms so he could embrace her. She was tearing up. She had rarely cried and most of time I saw was during sad movies. I never had seen her cry for her parents before. She reminded me of a little kid who would cry if they were to fall down. He understood her reason. He knew that she was her father's favorite, a daddy's girl and when she fell as a child, he was always there for her but not anymore. It had been hard on my mom recently because her mother had died a few months ago and my grandpa died a few months later.

"We both don't have our parents anymore but there is something else that we both have: each other. Though, we might not have our parents with each other, we have each other and that all we need," my dad stated to my mom, as he tried to bring about her beautiful smile. It was new of him to say such a thing, it was like uncovering a new side of my dad that wasn't really seen a lot by me because his masculinity dominated any other feeling he portrayed. Perhaps, that was the only one he ever showed. She smiled and wiped her tears and the both of them walked towards the door and back into the place and we secretly returned to our place in the line for passport renewal.

We are brought to the world and carefully hold our parents by their fingers and learn to walk, cry, and laugh. Then one day, we grow up and become independent and our hands untwine from our parents. We get married and have our own children and one day you get the news, you've lost them and you forgot to hold on tight and grasp their hands. We might grow up however, we'll never forget that they were the foundation of your life especially for the day it's all falling apart. As I look back on that trip, I realize that though I went to a different state for the first time, that specific moment was the only one that stayed with me and always will. Although we may travel as far as to the ends of the Earth, I realized that we always learn a lesson that tends to stay with you forever.