Personal Narrative-I-M-Move?

Moving. Amanda didn’t like this idea. Her mom got a job out of town to earn even more money

May 8th 2014, a Thursday night on a school night. At the time, I was 13, nearly finished with middle school and soon to be graduating onto high school. On this particular night, I sit at my kitchen table across from my older sister, both grasping our 3DS's playing our favorite game at the time: Animal Crossing. In the midst of an intense competition of catching fruit as we race against the clock, my mom moseys into the kitchen and sits between us. She demands that we put down our consoles. My sister complies, whereas I ignore her and attempt to finish up my game. My mom then forces me to end my game, explaining that she desperately needs my attention. She gathers herself and thinks for a moment, finally spitting out the words “I'm moving out”.

Times were tough when I was 8 years old. However, it was at this time that my mum decided that it would be best for us to move out from our house and change my schools. An obnoxious bar just completed construction across the road and the presence of such homeless and corrupt men would only hinder my growth. That is what my single mum, that had to look after me and my two sisters, thought. But then again, who would think that living in downtown alleyways would be a promising idea for a single mum with three kids.

Moving schools and neighborhoods was when I first felt like a stranger in the village, but in this case it’s not a village. Attending my new school was so hard to get comfortable with, but I managed. I made friends instantly and made new memories. Unfortunately some problems with my dad didn’t change and he would try to meddle with my mom's life and control her still which wasn’t good for my mom.

For the first ten years of my life, I had a very normal childhood. I went to a private catholic school in a small town called Westwego. We were about twenty five minutes south of New Orleans. During the summers, friends and family would come over to our house and we would all swim and boil seafood. The summer of 2005 was no different; I was looking forward to entering 5th grade. Fast forward to one week before school is about to start when Hurricane Katrina formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricanes were no strangers to us as we have been through several throughout the years. However, a few days later the storm is upgraded to a Category 3 and is predicted to hit New Orleans dead on. My parents felt it was time for us to leave and we traveled

At a young age, I moved from the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) to Miami Florida. Moving is not an easy thing to do, I had to leave all of my friends and family behind and become familiarized with uncertain place. I was surrounded by the unknown, everything was strange and so different to what I was usually use to. At the time I could not speak any English at all but that eventually did not matter to me, I slowly started adapting to my new environment and I became more positive. Although I could not communicate well and had a few obstacles I was very organized with my studies and kept very decent grades.

One of two. That's how I feel everyday of my life. I'm a twin and that means I will never be complete without my other half. When I was younger, I learned that having a twin does not keep me from things. It's getting to have a person in my life that I don't need to hide from, other than in hide and seek. When I was little, my brother probably hated me as much as I hated him. But we were together all the time. We went to school together, we were in the same class almost all the time. Sometimes, we had the same friends even. We shared birthday parties, cakes, presents, money. Basically the same things we still share now. But between us, we shared secrets. Little things that we thought were so cool. When my grandma gave us money, we split it and made sure not to tell our parents. I went and bought

Two years ago in fifth grade was a great year until one something happened, something that was not going to make the year better, but make the year worse. I was sitting in my room watching TV when mom yells from the living room, “Kandace! Can you come here please?”. I pause the show and walk out of the room and sit on the couch she looks at her phone and then at me, “ Katelynn and Andrea are moving to Arizona.” she says in a sad voice, My heart stopped. In my head, I just kept thinking It’s a joke, she is just kidding, why would they move so far away? but she wasn’t they were really moving to Arizona, and I had no idea why.

At a very young age, I began making my own decisions and putting myself first. After my parents got divorced, my mom decided to move. The move wasn't small. In fact, it was a very large one. We were moving halfway across the world. I did not understand why we had to move but I knew my mom would always make the best decisions for our family. First, it seemed cool when I was telling everybody. But then it hit me hard, knowing that I wasn't going to see my friends and family for a very long time. At the age of eight, I did not understand what was going on. I felt like I was out of the loop. I was going to have to make new friends and meet new people even though I did not know the language. Even when it came to finding something to eat, we did not know how to order food. It was a great struggle that was hard to overcome.

I was six, I knew that we couldn’t stay one place forever. That concept was foreign. Every few years my family and I were stationed to a new place, this time 45 minutes away. Of course, being the stubborn and impatient six year old I was, that seemed a light year away. I have never had friends that lasted over 3 years. Either they left, or I moved. This time, I left first. My friends were my world. I was happy. They were devastated to get the news of my departure. Tears were mixed with the “goodbyes”, and the occasional “I’ll never forget you”.

I guess you could call me a package because I am constantly being shipped around-five countries, twelve houses, eight schools in sixteen years. Consistently moving every two or three years is a lot to handle but somehow I have figured out a way to make it work, especially when it comes to packing up my room. Most people pack their room in ten to fifteen boxes over the course of one to two weeks unlike me who takes over two months to pack three small boxes. It may seem like a small amount of belongings could fit into three boxes which is true but I have learned to appreciate memories over objects. This perspective is very different than many millennials; however it is a major part of me.

Crashed on some land that I moved in It's a little place below with some odd faces, 'friends' Stay up when it's late, I'm on too thin We promised each other to the fight 'til the end Now we're spinning these rum bottles It's just the four of us With devil minded nations people die to trust I wish to resist this day But, I can't resist it anyway

Moving, although natural, is not easy to most people. How many things are involved when you have to leave your school and friends behind to go to a place totally unfamiliar where anything could go wrong? For me, more than I could count since my family decided to move four thousands miles away.

Have you ever lost someone or something that was very important to you? In this prompt I am going to tell you about me having to move from one house to another.

For most kids this is one of numerous things they don’t want to hear. Not for me I was ecstatic about the treacherous thing that happens when you move . . . A new life. I didn’t care about abandoning my school or friends because I had all E’s and no friends. That was back in Colorado, now I’m in high school at Higginson, New York. It’s all because of one person, Alison Sprayer. That was all behind me, or so I thought. Until one morning all of that changed.