Growing up, my family moved for my dad’s job a total of 3 times. The first move to Michigan from Canada did not affect me as much because I was only 2, but the other two moves impacted my childhood and have shaped me into a different person than I would have been if I had not moved.
My family’s first move was to Huntsville Alabama, a city about an hour away from the Tennessee border. This was a major culture shock for my whole family of Midwestern people, who until 2004, had never experienced a winter without snow. People down there have different values that definitely took some time to adjust to. I started second grade a few weeks after we moved, and I remember how nervous I was being the new kid, who honestly did not know anybody and was told that I was hard to understand without a Southern accent. I talked to a few people in my class, but both my brother and I did not like our new school at all. My parents moved us to a private school that our neighbors went to the following year, so we would at least know people on the first day, but once again, it was a new school where I was the new kid again.
This school was better, but I never felt like I belonged at that school and always looked different and sounded different than all the other kids. I didn’t call my parents “sir” or “ma'am” or say ya’ll to my friends. I ate different foods at lunch and was always thought of as “the shy, quiet girl”. After two years at this school, we got the news that my dad had been transferred back to Michigan and we were finally going “home”.
I was excited to move back to my old town and see my old friends and get to continue the life that I had before I moved. Unfortunately, we moved to a house that went to a different elementary school and once again, I didn’t know any of my neighbors or classmates. By this time, I was on my 4th elementary school in 6 years and wanted so badly to have friends that I could have for a long time. In 5th grade, everyone already has friends though and welcome new kids at first, but if they don’t do the things you do or like the things you like, they forget about you pretty quick. The first year back in Michigan was a difficult time for me and was the start of my struggles with anxiety that I still have today.
After hearing about all this change, you might wonder how I could possibly be thankful for this part of my life. I ask myself that too sometimes, but I realized that my life would be different without moving and there is no guarantee it would be any better. I learned how to adjust to new situations and how to be comfortable with being alone. I learned that making friends is a lifelong skill and what a true friend is. I got to experience the world in ways I may have never done before and travel to places that I may have never gone to. I learned responsibility and the process of moving and how to be self-sufficient. I remember moving into my bedroom I have today and unpacking all my boxes by myself and thinking “This is mine”. Most 10-year-olds are sick of their 10-year-old bedroom that they have had all their lives and want something different. I had my share of different and was ready for some consistency.
But nothing constant in life teaches you anything and eventually, you have to move on to the next step. Moving taught me how to take that next step and has made me an independent, responsible, considerate, friendly person. I was the new kid and whenever I see someone who is shy or feels out of place or is taking that next step, I sit with them and assure them that they have a person who understands. The girl who never moved may have been too shy to do that. I’m thankful she didn’t grow up to be that girl because she was meant to be somebody different in a much better way.
