Moving can hurt really bad. It means moving away from all of your friends, family, and everything you know. Since my dad has been with us we have moved too many times. Middle of eighth grade my parents told me the Army had relocated my dad to Virginia. Virginia? That seemed a million miles away. I was going to miss everyone so much. But missing someone isn’t a bad thing, I had a lot of ideas on how to stay in touch with my friends and hope they wouldn’t forget about me. Moving can also build confidence when you are forced to meet new people. It’s a chance to make new friends and start all over. No one can judge you because they know nothing about you.

When arriving to my new school, I felt a completely different atmosphere. Everybody was so different. The school was very culturally diverse. It was unique seeing all of the different trends. Every corner I turned someone was speaking a different language. It made me excited being in a different environment. Even though I wanted to leave and go back to my hometown, I told myself that there was nothing I could do about me moving and I need to make the best of it. In all of my classes I talked to a new person each day, and they were all really friendly. I found out that there were a lot of students like me who moved far away from their hometowns. It felt good to not be alone. After a year of being in that school I knew nearly everybody, and was having a good time with everybody. I came home after school and was told we were moving back to my hometown. I didn’t know what to feel? I wanted to go back home with all of my old friends, but I made so many new ones in Virginia. With that news I found out I would be going to a different school with more people I didn’t know. I had to start all over again and it wasn’t fair to me.

From all of the experiences from moving, I learned to you must make to best of what you’ve got. Make new friends and join clubs so you can feel like you fit in better rather than being known as the awkward new kid. I have gained so much confidence just by sitting next to people at a lunch table and introducing myself and I made some really great friends.