I was born in Washington, in a little town called Port Orchard. It was a cute little town, right on the Pugent Sound. The smell of the rain in the morning was like a wake up call, getting us ready for the day. It was perfect there; it was beautiful in the summer, and in the winter it hardly ever snowed, so when it did, everyone would play outside all day. All of my siblings were born there as well, and we had many memories. Life was going good; I had a lot of friends (well, for a 1st grader), and I was doing great in school. I was as happy as could be. But then, something happened that changed my life forever.

I rode the bus home, just like I always did, and my parents met me at the door, as usual. But this time, I could tell that something was up. I walked inside, and threw all of my school stuff in my room. My parents called me and my siblings into the living room; I was the only one who went to all day school at the time. We walked into the room and sat down on the couch, and my dad started talking.

“I have been offered a new job.” he began. “But it is in a different state; Michigan.” Immediately, I started tearing up.

“We can’t leave!” I screamed, bawling my eyes out.

My parents managed to calm me down, and by the time I went to bed that night, I felt much better about leaving; maybe even a little bit excited.

The next day at school, I told all of my friends that I was moving to Michigan. They kept asking me questions like, “What language do they speak there?” “ Do they have accents?” and “When are you going to come back?” I didn’t have an answer for any of them, but all of the questions just made me really scared. What is it really like in Michigan? I started to really doubt what was happening in the next few months.

About 10 months later, I wandered through the rooms and the halls of my house, for what was going to be the last time. All of our stuff was either in boxes or being put in them. My entire family was over; everyone on my moms side lived in Washington at the time, and this was the first time someone from our family was leaving the state, and my grandparents on my dads side were going drive the U-haul with us to Michigan.

We put the rest of our things in the van and the U-haul, and got in the car. Everybody was crying; we were no longer going to see each other everyday. I was going to miss them so much.

We started driving away, and all I could think was that I was never going to see any of my friends again, I was never going to see my house or my school. And, we even had to leave my cat behind. The whole trip, I was just trying not to cry.

After about 2 weeks, we finally arrived in Michigan. We were staying at a friends of my parents house, just until we found house for us. It was near the end of the summer so it was the perfect temperature, and the house we were staying at had a huge backyard, so it was really nice. I was actually starting to like it in Michigan.

We bought a house, and school started. The first day of school was the worst day of the whole move. I had been dreading that day since we first left Washington; I was so scared that nobody would like me, so scared that I wouldn’t have any friends. That morning, when I woke up, I just cried the whole time until I had to leave, and even on the way there, I was just bawling my eyes out. By the time we got to school, I had finally stopped crying, but I was still really scared. My parents gave me a little pep talk, and I walked into my new school.

When I got to class, everybody was already there, and they all knew each other already, so they were all kind of staring at me. The bell rang, and my teacher took attendance. She got to my name, and when she realized that I was the new kid, she had me come up to the front of the class to talk about myself.

“Well....” I began, “I lived in Washington… and it rained a lot… and… ummm….” I could feel my face turning beet red. What else am I supposed to say? I was really freaking out.
Eventually, the teacher took pity on me, and let me go sit down.

“If anyone has any questions about Natalie, feel free to go up and ask her!” she said enthusiastically as I took my seat.

Once I was sitting, the teacher told another girl to come up to the front; another new kid. She began to tell her story.

“I lived in Alabama, and I have 2 brothers, and…” and she went on and on, talking all about herself. It turns out, she had lived in Washington for a short time, too. Later, we sat by each other at lunch, and started talking about all of our memories from our pasts. We spend the rest of the day together, and I immediately knew I had made a great friend. 

That night at dinner, my parents asked us how our days had been. I said mine was good, and they asked if I made any new friends. I told them I did, and I realized, life here in Michigan might not be so bad after all.