In February of 2016, in the small room where the entire family would meet, often in the evenings, to watch TV or discuss the events of our day, my parents told me, my brother, and two sisters, that they were thinking about moving.

“Your father is considering changing jobs,” my mother stated. “We’ve been talking about it between each other for a while.”

Me

Dad

Mom

At that time, my father was a pastor, completely comfortable with his job in Indiana, and I had plenty of friends I saw weekly, as I was homeschooled.

Naturally, this came as a complete surprise to me. I had only moved once before, when I was 2, from Santa Barbara, California to Lafayette, Indiana, so this was the biggest change in my life up to that point.

I was dismayed, but it would be a long time before we left anywhere.

As the year went on, I put the prospect of leaving in the back of my mind and focused on having fun, such as hanging out with my friends, and my hobbies, which were reading and math.

Me

Rafi

Tyler

Franklin

Grandma

And for a while, nothing happened. The summer of 2016 was one of the best summers of my life, and as Dad’s job hunt grew lengthier, it didn’t seem like we were going anywhere anytime soon.

    However, being a 9-year-old kid, my parents didn’t disclose to me much of the information and processes going on, and they were still very much on the lookout for job opportunities.

In November, me and my siblings were sent to Florida to stay with our grandparents, while our parents flew to Arizona to see a church in that area.

Grandma

Grandpop

I had gone to Florida in the summer for almost my entire life, so it was strange to be there in the winter, and considering the idea of leaving Indiana and being in a new place didn’t make it much better.

By January of 2017, my dad had decided on a small church in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

    I knew nothing about the region and didn’t understand the differing attitude and atmospheres of different places in the United States.

Indiana

Pennsylvania

We didn’t tell anyone we were moving at first until we had to start packing up. Before that happened, however, we had to decide on a home to live in. In May, we went with a realtor to scope out different houses and decide which one would be the best to live in.

I remember walking into a house that was larger than the others we had explored that day. It was next to a busy road and had a large yard. However, I loved it, and so did my siblings. “This is perfect!” me and my siblings proclaimed. That was the house we ended up moving into.

It had a flight of stairs, which I had never had before, as our home in Indiana was one-story. After choosing that house, my dad was accepted into the church and we were officially going to move.

This was now around June. Our house was being refurbished and packed by the movers and a few of my friend’s families pitched in to help as well.

I was having a lot of fun now that school was out, and I was upset that the summer would be ruined by moving. I didn’t want to move from the house I had lived in for as long as I could remember.

I would have to say goodbye to my lifelong friends and go to an unfamiliar place where I didn’t know anybody, didn’t know the area, and was unfamiliar with the lifestyle.

The unfamiliarity was the worst part.  I expected to get something back if I was going to lose touch with all my friends, but all I got was a small amount of hope that my life in Pennsylvania would be happy.

I spent the last week in Indiana having the most fun I could have. On June 27, I spent all day at Six Flags with my friend Rafi…

...then spent the next day at my best friend Tyler’s house, and said goodbye to him at the local Cracker Barrel.