The Day My Family And I Moved

Moving right before high school was one of the hardest experiences in his life. Imagine: Leaving behind the house you had grown up in. Leaving behind your neighborhood. Leaving behind all of your friends right before the biggest milestone known as high school. Chris felt like his world was falling apart. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, his family moved so that he could start high school in a more bourgeoisie neighborhood and so that he could attend a prestigious high school. Chris describes this life changing event as, “Helping me to come out of my shell and be more flexible.”

Growing up in Chicago, I attended a neighborhood school from preschool through first grade. Although it was an exceptional school for elementary kids, the education for middle school and high school students was not as adequate. Seeking a better place to raise their children, my parents were faced with a tough choice. When I was in 2nd grade, our family made the decision to move to the suburbs. On July 3rd, we all packed into our Honda minivan and drove 45 minutes to a new home in the town of Winnetka. Within my first year at Crow Island, my new school, I learned so many new things. I started playing the violin and speaking Spanish, neither of which were offered at my old school. I met my best friends that I'm still close with now. Over the

Who would have known traveling could be such a hassle? Especially when moving from Wilson, North Carolina to boring Goldsboro. Especially when having strict parents, an annoying sister, a spoiled brother and an innocent me stuffed in a van, just to move only 26.4 miles. Moving cannot be that dreadful, I tried considering to myself. Making new friends and memories are not the worst thing in the world. There was only one slight problem …school. It was fall of third grade and everything was different. From math to English to science, concepts were thrown at me that I was so sure that I had never seen at my previous school. So at first sight of trouble, I turned to my parents, but only to end up with a frustrated me and a very agitated mother.

My father wasn't around as much during Middle and High School. He took a position in New York City that kept him away for much of the week, though he would often return each weekend for short spurts. After graduating high school, I joined my father in New Jersey to embark on my undergraduate experience, leaving behind my mother and siblings in our upstate New York home. The dichotomy between these two locales was immediately perceptible — from the population density and cultural heterogeneity to the very way that the roads and highways were strewn about. The acclimatization process was sluggish — further hampered by my own initial sentiments of detachment. Being a novel resident of New Jersey while also commuting to campus day-to-day was challenging,

How could I let Eli force me into this? After what seemed like forever there was a short silence. I took a breath and muttered to myself. “I hate Eli.” I spoke louder than I had intended to so she looked at me with curiosity. I gestured to where Ankia had disappeared. “His planner isn't in the cafe. He just wanted a distraction to force me into confessing to you.” She looked at me with a blank expression. I hugged my legs and stared at my feet, “I've had a crush on you for about a year and he thinks I should ask you out.” I glared at my feet. It wasn't exactly romantic, but I just wanted to blame Eli for my situation. Even if I let him every step of the way, invited him even. I wanted to think that it was him who made me jump off the stupid cliff. I would never jump off a stupid cliff of my own free will, why would I do that? All these things went through my head as the eternal silence held the air in

It was the year 2008, I had just graduated from St. Michael’s School located in Los Angeles, CA. This year was quite exhilarating for me also scary because I was going to attend an all-girls high school. Los Angeles was my birth place also a place where I called home. One day, I came home to hearing my parents talking about moving to Mississippi. I remained devastated, not only we were moving to the south, I’m moving away from childhood friends. I was worried I wouldn’t see them again and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make new friends in Mississippi.

When I was very young I remember the day that the 9/11 attacks happened. I was in my 5th grade math class when my principle made an announcement over the PA stating what took place. He requested that there be an immediate assembly in the gym. When we got to the gym he began to talk about how America was attacked and that two airplanes hit the Twin Towers in New York City. When I was hearing all this I was very confused only being a young boy. Many people came to pick their children up from school in fear that something could happen to us. I also remember how the news portrayed the attacks. They constantly replayed the footage of the planes hitting the towers over and over again. This was a form of social control, in the form of an agent of socialization where “mass media gives information and images that are consumed by the general public (Chriss, 2010). They wanted to strike fear into the people of America and wanted a sense of patriotic emotion running through their veins. President Bush came onto TV and told everyone that they have weapons of mass destruction and didn’t really explain who they are. The only motive was to hurt the American people and this was an action of war. He mentioned that this was the doing of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. It wasn’t until I just read this article that I really understood why Al Qaeda does these things or what their motives are.

A fierce Autumn wind picks up lashing at my face, as a barrage of brittle brown leaves whirl into my path. Behind me stands the foreboding structure of Ellishire Boarding School. For four years this massive enity located in the dark heart of england has shelted my bones.

Throughout history, many tragedies and sorrowful situations have occurred having to do with issues such as wealth and money, power, control, and other issues. One of these times in history is during the frightening event of 9/11, also known as the day the World Trade Center collapsed by hijacked planes. This one event alone has impacted and changed the way people live today significantly. The reaction of American people after this infamous event of the September 11, 2001 tragedy was of multiple things including patriotism, pride, and being united. Quickly, the American public wanted to know who was responsible and planned revenge. This usually gives the government the public support it needs to declare war on the enemy and declare a war which never happened.

I closed my eyes, trying to force my own smile away. There was nothing funny about what had actually happened that night, but she didn’t have to know all of it. She didn’t have to know what was going on in that room next door. She definitely didn’t need to know about how she had asked me to join them. And the memory of what I had seen her doing made me sick to my stomach again, and I had to force the bile back down before I vomited.

At times in life there comes something called change. In my opinion, I was not a big fan of change. You cannot imagine how I was feeling when my mother announced that we were moving. It was the middle of my sixth-grade year, I was feeling countless emotions, none that could be explained at the moment of the announcement. The main thing on my mind was school; my friends, my outstanding teachers, and the environment. All things I had left behind. All I could think about was, “How will I ever adjust?” I knew exactly what was to come, I knew exactly what I was going to become, an outcast. There were numerous of ways on why I was feeling this way, but

I could see her face trying not to laugh at my accent, I never felt so embarrassed in my whole life, but at least she did not ignore me, she replied with a smile and said “yes”. Well what a great start to my day, as I walked into the building I saw a seemingly endless line to nowhere, but as I got in line a person tapped my shoulder. I immediately turned around thinking it was the girl again, however, it was just another student, he was a tall guy, however, he did not look like he played sports, he was really scrawny, and with a surprised look at his

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

It was a bone chilling January night; my mom received a call at about 11:15 PM, a call that changed my life forever. My Aunt June was on the other line. She was crying so hard my mother could barely understand her. Through the sobbing my mom finally understood that Brian, my cousin, had been in a horrible accident and she didn’t know how bad it was. My mother jumped out of the bed after she hung up the phone. She screamed up the stairs at my sister and me; it was a nerve shrilling scream. I could hear fear in her voice. My mom was always yelling at us growing up if we forgot to do something. She would even get us out of bed to finish something that wasn’t done completely. This particular

It wasn’t until the morning of Saturday, May 21, 2016 that I realized what the true feeling of unconditional love was. The moment a parent looks into his or her child’s eyes there is just so much love it’s unbelievable. People think they know what love is when they love a significant other, family member, or a close friend; however, that love is nothing compared to the love a parent experiences the day his or her child is born. That is the love I felt the moment I placed my beautiful baby boy on my chest.