It was a long road. After moving from Oxford to downriver we stayed but they didn’t want to stay anymore. When we first put our house up for sale I was 9 years old. I always wanted to move because I thought my house was ugly. I know it sounds funny, but I was 9. So 7 short years go by. We’re still in the same house. Our house is still up for sale. By this time I was a sophomore in high school. That’s when people really started looking into our house. And by this time my parents wanted to move to because my step-mom was driving too Brighton everyday. Which, if you don’t know is an hour away from downriver.

It was the end of my sophomore year and someone put an offer on my house. I can just remember the excitement that ran through my body. They ended up buying it, so of course we start looking for houses. My parents just couldn’t find anything. It was one afternoon my sister came running down the stairs filled with so much happiness. She was looking online and she found a new neighborhood in Brighton. So my parents went and looked at some of the houses. Not to make this longer than it should be you can only guess what they did. They started building one. It was in Brighton, but a Hartland school district. I was so excited. To start over, I could be anyone I wanted to be because no one knew me before. We would go check on house every so often. Well, my parents would go like once a week, I would go like once every two months. One time, while we were out there we went to check out my school, and register for classes. I have never seen a high school so big. Remember, I come from a small city, filled with about 20 cities. So schools are a lot smaller, because there are more of them.

After my sophomore year was over, I spent the whole summer with all of my friends. It didn’t hit me that I was leaving until the day I left. I remember spending it with all of my bestfriends. Just hanging out. I can’t tell you why it was so sad, I was only going an hour away, but it was.

I was leaving all of my friends behind, my whole entire life up until that moment behind. That was where I grew up, I knew everyone and everything. But, I was ready to move on.

So we pack everything up and head off to Brighton. But, our house wasn’t ready to we had to stay at a hotel for the first week. On the first day of school me and my sister got up, got ready, and headed off to Hartland High School. All I could think was “man this is going to be awesome”. It was what I always dreamt of.  Starting over was what I always wanted. I always wanted to get out of downriver.

Once my first week was over, I was ready to go back home. I’d still call downriver home, til this day. It was different in Hartland. Kids aren’t as accepting, everyone already has their own friend group, and theres to many kids to even notice someone is new. I have never been so excited for something to be shot down. It was an overwhelming feeling. Of not knowing anyone out of almost 2,000 kids. A few months went by and it wasn’t that much better. Of course I had friends, and of course I talked to people but high school wasn’t the same. It definitely wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.

I was always one of the most outgoing, athletic, nice students at my old school. I can tell you how quickly that changed at Hartland. No one even cared who I was. It was weird. More different than weird, but still weird. I never even thought it would be like this at another school. Moving to Hartland felt like I was in a whole other state. The way people talked was different, the way people did almost everything was different. After a while I got use to it. I loved the friends I made, and I loved the teachers. That was the best thing about moving, the staff. The school year was almost over and of course I was excited. What student isn’t.

Coming back to school for my senior year was exciting, of course but this time was it different….