Personal Narrative: Moving To Downtown Raleigh

A wise man once said, "Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not." I have always planned for the future then sometimes it's not as I expected it to be. I used to live in Raleigh, North Carolina and thought I would be there forever. I never really thought about moving as a result it didn’t bother me until one day. I was told we are moving to South Carolina, I honestly thought that it was the worst thing ever. Change may not be as bad as you might think it is. Who knows, you may like change better.

My hometown of Eldersburg, Maryland is fairly indistinguishable from the majority of towns in the rest of the United States. Eldersburg closely strattles the line of being the town mentioned in an All Time Low lyric, and that being placed in the crosshairs of somewhere. The main points about Eldersburg probably stem from the influx of supermarkets we have such as Food Lion, Martin’s, and Safeway, to name some of the larger ones, and the location of Liberty High School. However, despite this inability to have any truly positive distinguishing features, I have always found Eldersburg to be quaint enough to learn the lessons of growing up in a safe, community driven environment. Home is a place where you grow as an individual, flourish into what

4,097 people. That was the population of Centralia Missouri in 2011. Moving had never been an issue for me, when your dad is in the military you get used to it. This time it was different than any other time. My parents were divorcing and my mom was forcing me to move to a town with only 4,097 people opposed to my home in Virginia with 225,401 people.

I find myself looking over my shoulder every time I step outside my front door. Violence has opened my eyes and destroyed my dreams of peace. When I first moved to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico, I moved into a neighborhood that was full of gangs and drugs. Philadelphia represented a new start, a chance for me to breathe again. I had experienced a tragic shooting right before my ten year old eyes in Puerto Rico; my mom’s best friend was killed, while the murderer calmly walked away. We escaped to Philadelphia, and I thought my days of witnessing horrific violence were over. However, my dreams were shattered like gunshots in the night. One day, while I was napping, I was awoken by a series of deafening pops. As soon as I heard them, I dropped

Before I moved to Canton, I lived in Wethersfield CT. One day during late summer when I was around 6 years old there was a bad thunderstorm. It ended up turning into a storm with tornadoes. My dad was in the middle of mowing the lawn and suddenly came inside, which is unusual because he likes to finish what he starts. When he came in he said that the sky didn't look right. My mom stood near the stove making chicken salad sandwiches with a worried look on her face.

During the summer I moved to Houston with expectation of a bigger and better life. In this I met a man, his name was Chase and he was tall and very handsome. We exchanged our information and continued to stay in touch, as we talked we began to develop feelings for one another. The passion grow between us, the good and the bad and I felt as though it was something that I couldn’t get with anyone else. Chase understood me and seemed to know everything that I was thinking before I could even form the words to say my thoughts. We spent endless nights together and I felt completely safe in his presence, but he was poison and I didn’t know it yet. I was warned by my very good friend Jordan that my feelings toward Chase would soon

Through a short path in the woods on a cool evening, I’m riding in a red wagon being pulled by my father. My two sisters little legs are racing down the path to the beach carrying roasting sticks and s’mores supplies. My mom’s concerned voice is yelling out, “Be careful!” as we make our way to the beach, the breeze inviting the smell of salt water to surround me.

Among my peculiar obsessions as a child was my ability to read maps. As a nine-year-old, I knew the names of, maybe, three towns in the country, let alone New Jersey. Despite that, interpreting maps and helping my parents navigate on family vacations were my way of learning. This trip wasn't our typical vacation, however: For the first time, I alone had been tasked with leading my mother to a town we had never visited before. During the car ride though, I succumbed to a bout of drowsiness and fell asleep moments after the car ride began. I had lost control of

Unlike many of my peers, I wasn’t raised in Montgomery County. I was born in Savannah, Georgia on September 10th 1997. After Georgia we lived in Anchorage, Alaska. During that time my now 16 year old sister, Asha was born. After Alaska we packed up and moved to Fairfield, Ohio. My now 11 year old sister, Malea was born there. That’s where I ended up spending almost 12 years there.After moving constantly when I was younger due to my mom being in the Army, it was nice to be stable somewhere. We ended up moving to Gaithersburg after my mom got a promotion in D.C. I started my Junior year at Quince Orchard very scared and nervous. Luckily, I met some amazing people that helped adjust to the move. The move to Gaithersburg made me realize that I

It was June of 2013 and I was in my room cooling, watching “Good Luck Charlie”. My mom came into my room saying that she was ready to move out of New York. Obviously I did not want to move out of the city I was born in. My mom never liked living in New York, so she always thought about moving. So the plan was to move in August. Time went by and I was thinking about what North Carolina would be like. I really wasn’t thinking about the friends I was leaving in Brooklyn, that never crossed my mind.

When I was nine years old my father went to prison. Since he was a single parent, I was forced to relocate to Washington State to live with my grandparents. Moving to Washington was one of the worst things that I thought could happen at the time, even though it ended up strengthening me as a person. I was forced to leave my friends, school, father and all of my other family members. I was taken from everything I knew and was left very confused and conflicted.

So in October of 2014, I made a decision that I wanted more out of life and decided to move to Columbia, S.C. It has been an adventure and decided I could not have been more proud of. I am a country girl from a small town of Newberry County with country fields, historical buildings, apartment complex, and the joys of knowing everyone in the town. I have always wanted to get out of the small town and have desired to see and experience what else life had to offer in another city, even though it is only thirty to forty-five minutes from my hometown, I consider it a new beginning and start in my success of life.

I had heard endless stories of my family that lived in Tulsa, but my 10-year-old self never would have imagined that I would come face to face with them. Especially not like this. I spent my entire life moving from city to city, state to state, how could my dad even think about settling down now? And in Tulsa of all places? It was moving day and I knew I could not put off meeting them any longer. As the movers scurried around the house, I anxiously waited in the driveway for my family to arrive. That’s when I saw them coming down the road, five black cars, 10 aunts and uncles and 17 cousins that had been figures of my imagination until this very moment. As the car doors swung open, my mind immediately pictured a clown car as I watched the people pour out of the car. Although everything I had heard made them seem crazy, my heart was racing as I felt a sense of excitement rush over me.

not want him to move to Pocatello. I didn’t want him to take away my stepmom, my brother Zander, and my sister Kyrie. I didn’t want him to take my family from me, I was really close with my stepmom we did things together all of the time and I was Zander and Kyrie’s nanny so I was really close to them they felt like my children, I am the one who started their potty training and worked hardest at it, I am the one who was able to get them into bed at night and I bought them things all the time, took them places and cooked meals and treats for them. I was with them most of the time and I was their favorite sibling, they told me all of the time. Then the next Sunday when I went to my dad’s house it was no longer a question, even though he knew how badly I wanted them to stay because I didn’t want to lose some of the few people that I was close too, he said that they were moving to Pocatello and he accepted the job in Idaho Falls.

Rain drops the size of Texas were falling, as I made my way out of my house. Why did it have to rain the day I decided to move? I had checked the whether forecast a few days in advance and the weather should have been a nice balmy 75 °F. But of course that was my luck. I had been planning this move for some time, and I thought everything would go smoothly (I was moving because I was going to attend Eastern Washington University). Instead the torrential rain was making me question whether I should reschedule my moving day. Putting all negative thoughts aside, I made up my mind to go ahead with the move. After all, I was only moving less than two hours away. Yes, I might be leaving the county I had lived in for the past 10 plus years, but it’s not like I was moving to Timbuktu. With a new positive outlook, I finished packing the rest of my few earthly possessions into my car. Everything seemed in place. I was ready to go.