Personal Narrative: Moving To Michigan

Moving from the South to the Midwest was a huge change in my life. For my whole life I grew up to the southern hospitality and the tang of salt in the air since the beach was always less than 5 minutes away wherever I lived. Now I moved to a place where they flip you off to say hi, and the closest thing to an ocean is a sea of grass that seems to go on forever. Although I am now adapted to the change for the most part, it took me awhile to break in to the social norms of an average Midwest kids.

Just recently, I found out I was moving to another state. Knowing I have to leave everything behind was awful. I was halfway through eighth grade, starting the second semester, and I was doing great. My grades were all A’s and I was happy there with all my friends, Amber, Marianna, and Makayla. Our house was decent, my sister and I both had our own rooms anything I would ever wish for. My dad had been promoted to another job, where he was going to get paid more than what he was currently earning. It was an amazing opportunity for my family. I was glad for my dad, but I still felt bad for myself.

I was nine years old when I moved to California from Japan, all the way across the world. Moving to California was quite possibly the weirdest experience that has happened to me as a child. Trying to move from a place that I pretty much spent my life in than literally going across the world without knowing anything about it was very foreign to me, however my parents used to live in california for about one or two decades.

Where one grows up affects their lifestyle and character; one’s surroundings shape his or her outlook on the world. Many people always say when growing up in the city one will be used to a diverse, hasty going, and exhilarating life; while growing up in the country one will be used to a deliberate, steadier, and bucolic life. Although moving to Mississippi was a dramatic alteration, I can explicitly acknowledges the menaces–death, robberies, and fights–encountered growing up in the city. Therefore, moving to the south may have been a better alternative involving my physical well-being, regardless of the many emotional struggles. Moving down south to Mississippi from Illinois showed me the struggles of coping with racism and prejudice people,

Since I moved to Waukesha when I was just five years old, I have learned to appreciate and get involved in several ways around this city. Recently, however, I got accepted to my dream school; UW-Madison. I was ecstatic to finally have the opportunity to leave the town I had spent almost all of my life in and start a new chapter somewhere else.

I moved to Connecticut in the September of 2008 because my Dad had a job transfer. This was around the time that I started the second grade. I was introduced to so many people and they were all so nice to me. Six years later, I made countless friends and started to feel like Connecticut was where I wanted to stay forever. But in December of 2014, my Dad got a phone call from a company in South Jersey and they wanted him to work for them. At first, he worked 3 days in Camden, and the rest of the week in Connecticut. That was difficult though because we did not get to see him as often as we wanted to. My parents then sat my brother and I down and asked us if we wanted to move to South Jersey. I did not know what to think. After six years, I loved living in Connecticut and I wanted to stay there. They told us that it would be a lot easier to move down to Jersey instead of my dad traveling every week. My brother and I both agreed that this is what we are going to have to do. I can still remember that day though. It seemed liked the world was going to a scorching end. At least my world was. I started to tell my friends that

I was born on October 23rd, 1999 very early in the morning the very first person to carry me was my dad. When I two years old me and my mom moved to Las Vegas, and lived there for about 6 years then soon move back to California. That was in early the early 2000’s when that happened . Few years past by then my sister was born June 23rd, 2005. I was staying with my cousin at the time until she was born then I went to see my sister on the day she was born.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida. I was six years old, playing by the pool with my new puppy. I loved swimming in the pool almost every day after school. I also enjoyed going out on our boat after school or crossing the street and going to the beach. My father came home one evening with some interesting news. Now, I do not remember exactly how I felt about the news at that time, but it seemed like I did not mind that much. He had announced that we were going to move back to my birth country, Belgium. I had been living in Florida for five years and it was basically all I had known so I did not know what to expect. I had to live with my mom at first, and then my sister would join us after she graduated high school and my father

On October 5, 2010, my mom made the permanent decision to move to Iowa from Indiana. I was very nervous. I knew I had to switch schools, I had spent three years at that school getting to know everyone and getting used to the school, but now it was time to leave not only the school but also the state. While on the road, I couldn’t concentrate. We’ve been to Iowa numerous times so I knew the drive quite well. I ended up going to sleep by worrying myself so much.

I remember that i was five and my parents decided it was time for a change. They had decided that we were moving to Indiana with my dads family. They told use it was going to be a good change for all of us. My three brothers Jose, Monico,Luis and I didn't want to move. But since we were kids we had too. The hole way their i was crying,because i didn't want to leave. I was going to miss my family and the church people.

On August 13th, 2016 my family and I started a new life. We were forced to relocate from Southern California to Prosper, Texas for my dad’s job. When I moved I knew absolutely no one. It was extremely hard to move away from my people that I have been friends with for almost my whole life. It was even harder to say goodbye to my grandma and my brothers. Finding new friends and adjusting to a new city in a new state was very difficult. On the first day of school, I was extremely nervous, because I didn’t know anyone.

When I moved to Florida in elementary school, Lynn and I promised each other that we would keep in touch. We’ve been best friends since she reached out to me the day I arrived at a Korean church in Alabama. Ever since I left, we texted each other daily. After 8th grade, excitement for high school dominated our texts. We conjured up grand plans, varying from surgeons to global journalists. We also had chats typical of 13-year-old girls–complaints about school, crushes on boys, etc. I assumed that Lynn’s life was the same since I left.

I really don't know how to say what I am going to say. But I'm going to try the best that I can. I am really thinking that me taking the Grand Rapids store was a bad decision for me to make. A lot of it is because of the pay. Over the last two or so weeks I have paid more in gas than the raise that I was given. So right now I am losing money going to work. If I would have know it would have been anything like this I would have turned it down. I would have loved to move to Grand Rapids but there isn't any places for me and my family to move to as of right now. The earliest a opening was coming was sometime in November and that wasn't a guarantee that I would get it. And I am not in the position to wait that long. The ones that they did have

After fifteen hours I was ready to get out of the car. I knew we had to be close; I could see the tall beautiful church. That seemed to be one of the only distinct memories I had of this place. My family had been moving around Florida for the past three years of my life. Three years, three cities, and four different schools. This time we were moving to Ohio; my family was very excited about the move they said they were so happy to finally be home, but I had little to no memory of this place being my home.

Devastated, I ran to my room gushing my eyes out. All these emotions going through my head of how my life would be without my parents in the same room or even house. From what I remember it all started about mid-June, the weeks before that were crucial. My parents would always argue over how to deal with a situation between me and my brother, Skyler. They hardly spoke to one another, but when they did they would just start bickering. I remember, one night after dinner they both went into ''their'' room with the door locked yelling at one another. Skyler and I didn’t know what to do, so we went downstairs and tried to figure out what was going to happen. With a scared tone I asked if mom and dad were going to get a divorce?" He answered back '' No, they love each other, they wouldn’t do that to us." That following night, was a school night everything was quiet except for my crying. I couldn’t sleep; all I was thinking about how it's going to affect my family.