PREFACE

Have you ever wondered where people go? Let me clarify this question. Each year, people all over the world, well, they just disappear. What happens to them? Are they murdered or kidnapped? Do they take their own lives? Or are they just so miserable with their current circumstances that they feel the only way to improve their situation would be by disappearing, never to be found again? No doubt, it is all of these things, and one more.

Every story, every journey has a beginning. Ours began on the morning of March 24, 2014 a story that would lead my friends and I to tears, joy, sadness and in the end…I hope…peace for all who were part of this incredible journey.

As years pass us by, most of us tend to forget things. Sometimes those details are small and insignificant, but oftentimes they are memories that once held importance, but faded as time went by. I remember the morning of March 24, 2014, as if it were yesterday. This day would be for us “the crossing of the Rubicon,” also known as the point of no return.

It was a journey I tried to document as best as I could under the circumstances we were living, to ensure that those critical details and events would never be forgotten.

My name is Trinity Warner Medina. My father is Carl Warner, and my mother is Maria Medina Cruz. I was named after a character in a movie my parents saw before I was born. My mom was from Santiago, Chile, which is why we use two surnames, (father and mother’s, in that order). I also have two sisters, Ana, ten, and Bianca, thirteen. I’m five feet five, have shoulder-length dark brown hair, and brown eyes. That spring I was pretty fit, and more than able to keep up with the best of the boys.

The day I began writing this journal, I was seventeen. As I sit here today, at age twenty-nine, putting these words to paper, I am reminded of the human spirit, the soul, the drive, and the perseverance that keeps us alive and moves us forward toward our goals and our purpose in life.

It is the love of family and friends that makes us who we are, and it is because of this love that these words are being written. I hope they can somehow bring peace and put a smile on the faces of those dear to us.

I wish I could say we all completed this journey, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

To our families, the ones who these words were written for; know that we loved you; know that those of us who made it to the end did well, and tonight, as you go to sleep, know that all ended as it should.