“I’m coming!” I screamed from my now bare room. I glanced up at the walls that once held pictures of my friends and I, posters, and much more. Noticing the stain on the carpet only brought back more memories. It marked the spot where my friends and I had gotten in trouble for drawing on when I was five. Memories tumbled through my mind like an avalanche. All of them took place within these bare walls. The tape mark in the corner pinpointed the place where the picture of my best friend, Melanie, and I once hung. I was smiling a wide grin then, much unlike now. But how could I smile knowing that I would arrive in what was to be new home within the next 24 hours? How could I smile knowing I would be an outcast, an alien in my destination as I didn’t speak the language? I trudged down the steps, but my eyes were on those bare walls still.


Waking with a start, I looked around and wondered where my walls were. I wondered where my pictures, posters and memories were. Reality flooded into my head and I remembered that my walls were now bare. I realized that my plane had just landed in my new home. I dreaded leaving my seat on the aircraft and viewing the country for the first time. Finally, I reluctantly started down the aisle towards the door and could already smell the fresh air. I did, however, take note of the fact that the air smelled differently here and I doubted that I would be near the air I was used to any time soon. I stepped out of the plane and the sun glared down, hotter than the rays that were shining through the windows onto the bare walls I had left. My nerves tightened as I looked around at the different environment. Different people. Different food. Different architecture. Different lifestyle. I yearned for familiar surroundings. My family struggled through the city, trying to come upon the neighborhood that our new house lied within. Finally, we came up to our doorstep and I held my breath. My dad turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open.

“Kate,” he urged, “Go choose your bedroom.” I stepped within the house. It was much different than the one I was used to, the one that held the now bare walls. I timidly made my way up the hall until I found a room that seemed the right size. I turned within the bare walls of my new room. Bare, bare walls. I reached into my bag and pulled a picture from within its depths. I pinned a picture to the bare walls. I smiled for the first time as I gazed at the picture of Melanie and I. Now my walls were no longer bare.