Leaving home won’t ever be easy no matter how old you are. Abandoning everything never comes easy, and neither does starting a new life in a foreign country. Watching the only place you’ve been comfortable in for 14 years pass by you as you ascend into the distance rips you in two. Change becomes a natural part of life.
I’ve been through my fair share of trauma, from my parents getting divorced to ending up with five siblings in a matter of weeks. Compared to those traumas, moving 8,699 miles for my mother’s job and family reasons, from Canberra, Australia to Dallas, Texas, became the worst type of change I’ve endured.
I packed my 14 years of life into two giant suitcases, some of which my mother replaced with towels and linen ware, leaving me with less room to pack what I thought would hold my memories. My step-father, the police officer, packed the bare minimum, because he likes to think of himself as a tough guy.
The day I left Canberra, the August weather took a turn toward the bitter winter cold, causing me to bundle up -not to mention enduring an 18 hour flight in a cold aircraft cabin-. Arriving at the airport, pulling my bags out of the trunk of our taxi, tears streamed down my face. I said my rounds of goodbyes to my dad and siblings and had a feeling of gloom surround the departure lounge. Heading into the immigration and customs hall boggled my mind. How did it take me two years to get a visa and move to America and only 30 minutes to clear immigration?
Arriving in the United States, forgetting the seasons are reversed, my step-father and I stepped out into the sweltering heat. Me, in jeans and a thick sweater, him, in cargo pants and a light pullover. My first memories of America include the sweltering heat, driving on the incorrect side of the road and figuring out how to get to the hotel we lived in for the next month.
Three and a half years later: here I am. I’m a senior in an American high school, something I never thought about being. My mother, a nurse at a local hospital, my step-father, an in-training police officer for the Colorado Springs Police Department. My siblings, who all have their separate lives, one living in New York and the rest with families in Australia I someday hope to meet. My family starts over again.
Thinking back on changing everything I’d ever known, leaving won’t be easy. It will be traumatic, but change remains a necessary part of life. Leaving all the bad memories and experiences behind you just to begin again and start fresh is comforting.
Change affects and impacts all of us at some point and time in life. If we do not experience different things, then we become stagnant and will not grow in our everyday lives.
