Personal Narrative: The Transition From Childhood To Adulthood

At the age of 14, I moved from Atlanta to Las Vegas, then to Los Angeles. Atlanta was the place I grew up in, the place where I developed my personal identity, the place where I established lasting relationships, and the place I never wanted to leave. During my move, I lost every aspect that defined who I was as I my new peers shunned and isolated me due to by my “distinct lifestyle and characteristics In comparison to my brothers, I was never given the opportunity to receive the “typical” high school experience that is often seen on movies, as I was often alienated in my new setting. I attended two different high schools in two different states, allowing me never to fully establish long-lasting relationships that my mother and my brothers attained during their high school

I was slowly rolling up the street, sitting in the back of school bus number 741, for what felt like a normal Wednesday afternoon. I looked out the window as we entered my street and I couldn’t believe eyes. Little freshman me had my face pressed up against the bus window, desperately trying to comprehend why there could possibly be so many emergency vehicles in my driveway. The bus came to a stop, I ran to the front, and scrambled down the steps. I got off the bus, stopped, and looked at the 7 house walk I took every day to make it home. This walk I did everyday felt ten times as long and as I got closer and closer my vison started to blur, legs started to crumple, and all

Transitioning from childhood to adulthood is often portrayed as a long drawn out process. Growing up, I pictured my coming of age to be gradual, and swift. I imagined going through the motions, (as they do in Disney Channel sitcoms targeted at 12 year old audiences) being an angsty teen,dying my hair an outrageous color, getting a piercing without asking moms permission, or dating the high school “bad boy” (I’m talking to you DJ Tanner) and finally coming full circle; a well behaved fully-functioning citizen on her way to college. Instead of this swift, gradual development I had in mind, my switch from girlhood to womanhood felt more like someone kicked down my bedroom door at five in the morning, flicked on the lights, and proceeded to scream at

And I also remember the day, when my parents informed me that we were moving. The plan was to move out from the clustered city of New York, and shift into the suburban setting of New Jersey. As a young child, I was startled and not sure if I was ready to be able to commit and abstained the thought. The thought of leaving my friends and the place where I grew up in all my life, irked me emotionally. With a new city, came a new house and a new environment.

Moving away from the place that one calls home is a hard situation, especially for a child at a young age. I lived in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and I was in the eighth grade. I had been in Brookhaven School District majority of my childhood. I had plenty of friends, and I was involved in school clubs. It was two weeks before the beginning of my freshman year when I got the news. My mom called me in her room and explained why I had to transfer schools. My sister has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and she felt that it was best that we try a smaller school. I called up my friends to tell them the news, and we decided that these last few nights were going to be the best. We went out to bowl, had sleep overs, and had a special trip to the waterpark. I felt so happy to get that time with them, but moving day came and ruined all of the fun. That morning we packed up the house, said our goodbyes to our neighbors, and drove away. Though as I rode in the car towards a new beginning, I felt like I left behind the whole world behind me.

When we did finally move from my childhood home in Illinois to our new home in Knoxville, Tennessee, the only thing I could think about was how isolated and scared I felt. What was it going to feel like on my first day of class when I was surrounded entirely by strangers? I will always vividly remember walking into my new high school and feeling so lost. Every class I walked into was an alien environment and I had to struggle to keep my composure.

It was the summer between my eighth grade graduation and the start of my first year of high school that my family and I left behind our city dwelling first-floor three-bedroom apartment on a one-way street in Connecticut to the rurally side stacked townhomes and sub-divisions of Virginia. I had not put much thought into why we moved or what might come of moving. I did come to the conclusion that this move would be “better for us” as my mom would say because through copious amounts of research she discovered that the education provided would master that of our public school system where not all students had the books they needed in order to learn and even do homework. As the night transcended and we packed into our vehicles it was

“You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird. When I was nine years old my family and I moved from Marshall, Texas to Harleton, Texas. Making this move had a significant impact on my childhood due to the fact that I was taken from the town I had spent the first nine years of my life in only to begin an entirely new life in another town I had never even been to. I was taken from my friends and family, and I was faced with having to adjust to a whole new world. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this move and the experiences I would have would shape my life and make me the person that I am today.

“Can we talk about moving to Minnesota?”, my father would ask. “I don’t want to, ” I’d always responded. This lasted for four years, my father always looking towards the future, my future, but never willing to press me towards the opportunities he saw. I had friends, an expansive yard where I could play, take pictures, observe the wildlife, a quaint home in a quaint neighborhood attending a quaint school in northern Mississippi, and each time the question came up, a feeling of fear welled up as I thought about how different it would all be, really the complete opposite: a rural home to a suburban apartment, a school with fewer than a thousand students for grades K-12 to one quadruple the size, a world with friends, one without. Eventually, after my eighth grade year, I let in to my father and allowed logic to clear the emotions that

At the beginning of my 8th grade school year, I wasn't ready for change. I had lived in Crystal Lake, Illinois my whole life until l that point. I was forced to drop everything that I had held dear in that town and I moved to Highland Park, Illinois. I was frightened by the transition and this is most demonstrated in my first day at my new school. As we rolled up to the sidewalk and my

I consider an adult to be someone that is responsible for themselves financially. They pay the bills, do taxes, and work for a paycheck. Adults make the world go around, anything that requires skills or training to do can only be done correctly a trained and experienced adult. They played a crucial part in all the advances in technology in the past millennials. If all of them were suddenly abducted by aliens we would have drastic changes.

“Are you ready to go?” my grandmother asked. Before I could answer, my brother and sister ran up to greet her. Afterwards around two or three hours, me and two of my younger siblings left to Columbia with my grandmother. But, my parents and my youngest sister left a few hours after we had left. After an exhausting and strenuous three hour car ride, we finally reached my grandmother’s house. A few days later, my whole family and my grandmother went out looking for houses to buy. My family saw numerous houses, some I enjoyed better than others. One house in particular caught my eye. Not the house itself, but the fact that we would have to be homeschooled instead of going to a whole new school. Being six and all, I was dreading the fact that I would have to go to school. Think about it, I was a six year-old that left my school and all of my friends in Georgia that had to go to a whole other school in South Carolina with no friends or even people that I knew. Sadly, my parents didn’t end up buying that particular house. Although, I think that my parents wanted me to go to school. The house my parents chose needed some work and style. The room that I sleep in now used to be an appalling shade of brown. The playroom used to

When I was a little girl, moving never bothered me including the change that came with it. I would move somewhere and I would think of the fresh start that I would get. Going to new schools weren’t a big deal either because making friends was easy for me then. But when I entered the 8th grade I noticed how difficult it was going to be starting high school somewhere I have never been. It

What does not kill you makes you stronger. That is what were told from childhood to adolescents. During this time in our lives were faced with trials and tribulations that test us as individuals. This allows us to grow and bloom in to the strong young adults we are expected to be. We have all been there and passed these obstacles. My story is unique, but falls in the same path of success. I, along with many of my peers, struggled with self-esteem and having a positive imagine of myself.

Packing up your life and belongings is a difficult task to do. My family lived in Apple Valley, MN, until the week before my 7th birthday. My parents told my younger brother and I that we were moving to Hastings, MN. I had no idea where that was as a child. I was excited about this new experience. I have always been interested in travelling. When we arrived in Hastings, it was nothing like my old town. I knew nobody, all I knew was that I lived in the middle of the woods. Moving to a different town isn’t just about the new house, it is also about making new friends at a new school, and living a different lifestyle.